Shining Sunlight
by Falneou17
Summary: A fateful encounter with lasting results, a bond that should never be was formed and connected them. But the truth hurts, and none of them were truly ready for what would come after this... How will this one day change the lives of everybody involved and pave the way for a new tomorrow? Unrelated to Scarlet Sunlight or Crimson Sunlight.
1. The Day of the Live

**Okay, so****…**** Zeph warned me not to do this, but I am going to say this anyway to ease the worries and stress of people bothering to read the AN. If you come into this story hoping/expecting a story with the same weight and itty bitty trivia in between the lines as some of my other stories (like ****The Times We Lost****, ****Scarlet Sunlight**** or even oneshots ****The Final Glow of Afterglow**** and ****Their First Date****), you are ****probably**** going to be disappointed.**

**Instead, I am just going to have fun and see where this story will take me. Not saying I didn't have fun with any of my other stories (quite the opposite, really); I just want to try out something new and not restrain myself too much. I have been writing for this fandom for almost three years now as of writing this chapter, so****… if you're still interested and want to see where this story will go as well, let's find out together, shall we?**

**Also, considering what day of the year it is, I want to quickly say this: happy birthday to ****Reiriniverse**** over on Tumblr! If you are reading this on the day this chapter goes live, could you do me a favor and wish her a happy birthday for me as well?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

**The cover image features the character models of the following cards: **_**Absolute Darkness**_** Moca 4*, **_**Absolute Darkness**_** Ran 3* and **_**Piercing the Darkness, A Blue Rose's Pride**_** Rinko 3*. If the schedule syncs with that of the Japanese schedule last year (which I can't see why it wouldn't), all the EN players reading this will get to enjoy the gacha/event combo in about two months from now (at the time of posting this chapter).**

* * *

It was a late-afternoon in the summer and the weather had been turning hot and humid over the course of the past several days. Despite this shift in climate, a sea of girls exited the live house's stage in high spirits after a phenomenal performance. The band performing that day had outdone themselves and this left their fans excitedly chattering amongst themselves once the band had left the stage.

But nobody was as happy and energetic as the little girl accompanied by her two friends.

"Did you see that drummer, Lisa-nee? She was so cool!" the shortest member of Roselia, Udagawa Ako, exclaimed with exaggerated motions of her arms. Fortunately, or unfortunately for the poor souls who had to listen to her gush some more, Ako was nowhere near done, "The way she took control of that last bit… she might be almost as cool as Onee-chan is."

"Ako… you do realize that the drummer _was_ your Onee-chan, right?" Lisa asked with a light chuckle, grabbing Ako by the arm and leading her away from the mass of people leaving the venue to protect the short girl from being trampled. The brunette had to trust that the third person of their little group would follow along with her lead as Lisa was unable to babysit two people at once.

After much pestering and insistence and whining on Ako's behalf which even bordered a hysteric fit on Ako's end more than once, the members of Roselia all agreed to tag along with the band's drummer to a live show. More specifically, the live show of Ako's older sister that Ako had been looking forward to for months.

The other members of Roselia, on the other hand… all had displayed varying levels of enthusiasm to join Ako.

Yukina had called in a few hours before the performance was supposed to start, saying that she had caught a cold and did not want to risk getting sicker the weekend before an important test. Sayo, in turn, followed up on Yukina's message a few minutes later by mumbling something about having promised Hina some sisterly bonding time.

Neither Lisa nor Rinko would ever dare to inform Ako how relieved Yukina and Sayo sounded when they had announced they would be unable to join them. And, despite having had their doubts before arriving at the live house, both Lisa and Rinko had fun joining Ako that afternoon.

Afterglow had outdone themselves yet again, having held back teasing the new songs that they would perform. And, Lisa had to admit to herself, they had all been wonderful in their own unique way. Lisa could only imagine how much pressure had to be put on her fellow bassist to remain quiet for as long as she had as to not spoil the surprise.

"Say, Lisa-nee… where's Rinrin?" Ako's voice succeeded in shaking Lisa out of her own train of thoughts and back to the present. When Lisa looked around her she saw, much to her surprise, that Ako was right.

The third girl of their little group had been separated from them at some point, leaving Lisa all alone with Ako. And while Lisa knew she could have a blast of a time with Ako, it was Rinko she was more worried about.

"Rinko couldn't have gotten far, but she wouldn't hear her phone if we were to call her. Let's split up and search for her," Lisa suggested in a hurry, about to hurry off before she realized something else. The brunette reached out to grab Ako by the collar, reel the shorter girl in, ignore the sound leaving Ako's throat, and point to the clock hanging overhead, "Until the next hour. We should get back here by then, even if we haven't found her yet."

"Of course, Lisa-nee!" Ako nodded in agreement while rubbing her neck that was still slightly throbbing. With a plan of action in place, the two members of Roselia split up and dove back into the sea of people to find their friend.

Ako made a beeline to the area the live show was held, taking advantage of her height to squirm through the masses of people. Lisa, on the other hand, scanned the various faces heading towards the exit in the hopes that she could identify her missing friend.

* * *

Unbeknownst to both Lisa and Ako, the friend they were looking for was not very far from them at all. Ako even ran right past her when she split up with Lisa. However, she would be much too distracted to notice the bobbing of purple in her peripheral vision.

Why?

"So… did you get lost or something?"

"Ran!"

"What? It was an honest question that I am sure everybody here would have."

"Even if that's the case, couldn't you have phrased it a bit nicer?!"

Had it been under any other circumstance, Rinko might have watched the interactions between the group of girls in front of her with mild curiosity and even fascination. All the while wondering if this was a special occasion for them or if they did this on a daily basis. Roselia's keyboardist may never know as the warm-eyed, kindhearted keyboardist of Afterglow chose that moment to jump in between her friends.

As luck had it, unfortunately, Rinko was _not_ in a situation where she could stay relaxed in front of the members of Afterglow.

"Now now, Ran-chan, Tomoe-chan, there's no need to fight like that," the brunette said as she tried to ease the tension between her friends with fairly minimal success. When she saw that her two friends were about to lash out at each other again, she tried to jump in between the two, "You two are making us look bad in front of someone who came all the way out here just to see us!"

"Speaking of our fan…" the girl who Rinko recognized as the band's lead guitarist turned to face Rinko, moving the spotlight away from the quarrel between friends behind her to the lone member of Roselia in the area. Even the red-haired drummer and the vocalist with the red highlight in her hair had ceased their argument for the moment to listen to what their bandmate had to say.

Rinko, on the other hand, did not even need to hear what the guitarist was about to say; the way she looked at her, the way she was watching her as if she was being identified to the very core, and the tone of voice that she used to address here… Rinko was all too familiar with that stare.

And, sure enough, Rinko's worries became a reality when she heard the guitarist speak once again.

"This area should be off-limits to just the average guest, so how did you get here, anyway?"

Rinko could feel her heart drop to the pits of her stomach when she finally processed what the question was subtly telling her. She was trespassing, moving into an area she was not allowed to be in, and this realization made her realize something else.

She was completely out of her comfort zone. And completely out of options if what the guitarist was saying was true; which, the only rational part of Rinko's brain that was still working reminded her, would probably be true. There was no reason for the guitarist to intimidate her like that, right?

Ako and Lisa were nowhere in sight and Rinko could not trust herself to talk herself out of this. As a matter of fact, she barely could keep it together, already feeling her legs trembling and about to give out.

What if this was the end for her? What if she would be punished and never could see the light of day? Could she transfer to the next town and live under a whole different name?

Rinko's head started spinning and her breathing became irregular and raspy as her brain short-circuited. A thick, dark haze clouded her vision and Rinko felt herself slip. Before she even realized it herself, she felt her body teetering dangerously over the void of unconsciousness with no going back. It would not be long until—

Rinko let out a soft gasp when she felt a hand on each of her shoulders.

"Are you okay? Do you need to lay down for a bit?" the redhaired drummer asked, her voice filled with a concern that Rinko recognized as being similar to that in Lisa's voice. When Rinko did not respond right away, the tallest girl in the room decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Moca, give me a hand here, we need to get her somewhere she can rest. Ran, Himari, Tsugu, go find help!" Tomoe announced, directing her friends who sprung into action right away. Some, Rinko managed to notice through the haze in front of her eyes, more energetically so than others.

And, much to Rinko's slight surprise, the five girls who had just been performing for the better part of two hours were going out of their way to help her. To help someone they barely knew.

The next thing that Rinko's brain managed to process was the fact that she was sitting down and had a cold, damp towel hanging over her head. It was a simple thing, something that might have seemed insignificant, but Rinko was starting to feel better bit by bit. It was… calming and comforting for her to have the cool air wash over her and protect her from the heat.

"I'm telling you, Tomato-chin, it could have been just a heat stroke. You know how the weather this time of year can get to us better than anyone."

"Even so, it's the least we could do for her. She should be all right in a little bit once she has cooled off again. And stop calling me that!"

As Rinko remained motionless in her seat, barely able to distinguish between the floor and the ceiling, she kept a hold of reality by trying to listen to the conversation. She knew she was rude and she knew that she would have to apologize when she felt better, but— Rinko's train of thoughts was interrupted by the sound of footsteps that echoed through the hallway. But it was not just a single person's footsteps that came barreling towards them.

"Onee-chan! Onee-chan!"

Upon hearing the familiar cry, both Tomoe and Moca looked up from the tense yet surprisingly civil discussion they were in. Even Rinko, had anybody paid her attention, seemed to react to the voice that reached her ears.

The first and last thing that Tomoe saw when she looked up was a blur of purple dashing into her before a pair of arms wrapped themselves tightly around her. Tomoe, for her part, managed to contain her shock and dignity after seeing the identity of the human cannonball.

The redhead even managed to stay on both her feet for two seconds before she felt gravity take her and her sister down with it.

"Ako?"

"Sorry… Tomoe-chan… Moca-chan… I tried… to stop Ako… chan but… I couldn't…" Tsugumi gasped, having just rounded the corner that Ako had appeared from only moments prior. The brunette was huffing and puffing, taking raspy breaths while doubled over, but Moca managed to hear her utter two more words in that state, "I… tried…"

"It's okay, Tsugu, we all know that Ako-chin can be a handful sometimes. No offense, Tomo-chin," Moca added the second part in a hurry the moment she remembered how protective the redhead could be of her sister. Thankfully for Moca, she managed to dodge the bullet there as Tomoe did not seem like she had heard her at all. So, instead, Moca focused her attention on Tsugumi, "How did you run into Ako-chin anyway? Weren't we out here to help our fan recover from that heatstroke of hers?"

"A fan of Onee-chan's band got a heat stroke? Ako can help! What can Ako do?" Ako piped up, instantly detaching herself from her sister and jumping to her feet when she heard what Moca had said. Before Moca could point at the person in question, Ako had already locked on her target, "Oh wow, she looks like she's seen better days… will she be okay, Onee— wait a second… RinRin!"

Despite her short legs, it took Ako only two steps to sidestep Tomoe and be in front of Rinko's hunched form. Meanwhile, the three girls of Afterglow were taking a moment to look at each other in a silent conversation.

The moment when their eyes met they knew that the other two were thinking the exact same thing.

"Ako and Lisa-nee have been looking for RinRin forever!" Ako exclaimed as soon as she was right in front of her best friend. Had it not been for the state that Rinko was in, the three members of Afterglow knew that Ako would have glomped Rinko on sight as well.

"Ako, calm down, she's clearly not doing well," Tomoe scolded as she grabbed Ako by the shoulder and pulled her sister away from Rinko. Tomoe was about to say something else, but she was beaten to it by Moca.

"Besides, at this point our first priority is to get her the help she needs," Moca pointed out, having joined them to stand by Rinko's side. Unlike Ako and Tomoe, however, Moca made her move when she saw Tsugumi with a fresh damp towel in her hands, helping the brunette replace the one already over Rinko's head. Seeing that she had done what she could, Moca turned back to Ako, "Then we can find Ran, Hii-chan, and Lisa-san and help her get back."

"You won't need to worry about finding me anymore, I'm already here," a friendly-sounding voice said, catching the attention of the four girls and prompting all of them to turn around.

Walking to them was Lisa with Ran and Himari on either side of her. When she saw that she had their attention, the brunette waved with a cheerful grin on her face, "Yo! Sorry to make you watch over Rinko for us, but Ako and I can take it from here. Right, Ako?"

"Of course!" Ako nodded her head vigorously in the affirmative, her purple pigtails bobbing up and down in sync and almost slapping Tsugumi in the face in the process. After taking a moment to profusely apologize to the keyboardist, Ako looked at her sister and grinned, "Onee-chan was amazing as ever!"

"You really thought so? Thank you, Ako!" Tomoe grinned at the compliment. She seemed like she wanted to say more but one look from Ran shut her up; so instead, the redhead turned to Lisa after a sheepish chuckle and clearing her throat awkwardly, "Is it really okay for us to leave this to you?"

"I appreciate the concern, but it's our fault for dragging Rinko along with us today that she is in this state. So Ako and I will be the only ones responsible for Rinko," Lisa explained, a sheepish smile evident on her face. Before anybody else could say anything, Lisa quickly added, "Besides, after performing as well as you have today, I am sure you're all exhausted yourselves. Don't worry, we got this."

As if to emphasize Lisa's point, both Himari and Tsugumi broke the momentary pause by trying to stifle a yawn. The remaining girls in the area laughed heartily at Himari's and Tsugumi's expense, much to the two embarrassed girls' chagrin. It was eventually Ran who decided that her friends had gone through enough humiliation.

"In that case, we'll leave it in your hands, Lisa-san, Ako," Ran dipped her head in the direction of the two Roselia members who were still conscious, with the rest of the Afterglow girls following soon after. Having completed her pleasantries, the five of them turned around and headed back to the stage to help cleaning the stage after their performance.

This left Lisa and Ako alone with a Rinko who was still, for the most part, out of it. And both of Rinko's friends were well aware of this. So instead of trying to go home and push Rinko to move in the state that she was, Ako stayed by Rinko's side while Lisa came back a few minutes later with two chairs and an armful of juice boxes.

The three of them would sit in relative silence soon after, with Lisa and Ako giving Rinko the time to recover. At first, they were surprised that nobody on the live house's staff team came to kick them out, but Lisa would soon figure out the reason for this when Moca messaged her; they would be allowed to stay until the live house closed, giving them well over an hour to allow Rinko to properly recover.

But with the way things were, all Lisa and Ako were really doing was waiting… and waiting… Ako had tried to start a conversation with Lisa a couple of times, but each of them was met with little to no success as the older girl was much too worried about Rinko to give Ako the attention she needed. After the fifth conversation starter of Ako had sizzled out, the drummer pulled her knees up to her chest and glancing at her best friend every few seconds.

It wasn't until they were down to their last ten minutes that Rinko finally raised her head and acknowledged Lisa's and Ako's presence. Lisa had to physically restrain Ako from glomping the girl who has seen better days and risk hurting Rinko in the process.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, but we need to head out; Afterglow gave us an extra hour for you to recover but that hour is almost complete," Lisa explained, hoping that she managed to keep her voice as soft and gentle as she could so as to not affect Rinko. When Lisa did not notice any negative reactions from Rinko, she let go of Ako in order to move closer to Rinko, "Do you think you can walk?"

"I… think so…" Rinko began, getting up on a pair of shaky and trembling legs. She had barely taken a step before her legs gave out, causing Rinko to feel her body tip forward and the ground shooting up towards her.

Rinko braced herself for the fall… only for it to never happen.

"I guess that's a no; don't push yourself, Rinko, Ako and I got this," Lisa reassured the keyboardist, having dashed forward fast enough to catch a falling Rinko. With one arm around the keyboardist to try and support her, Lisa looked over to Ako, "Ako, can I count on you to get the chairs back? I'll start helping Rinko out the building."

"Leave it to Ako!"

Lisa, satisfied with the answer, nodded silently to Rinko and helped Rinko to the exit, one step at a time. It was a long and painful journey for Rinko and Lisa had to swallow her own worries when she saw that Rinko did not seem like she would stop. To Rinko's credit, she did not complain or otherwise try to stop Lisa; she gritted her teeth and tried to keep up with Lisa's pace.

Something that, much to Lisa's surprise, Rinko was able to do for the most part. And even though Lisa was walking at a slower pace than she would have normally, their pace allowing Ako to catch up to them again, Lisa knew that Rinko must have been exerting herself to keep up with her.

Lisa was about to say something about this to try and reassure Rinko that taking it easy would be okay when a soft, shaky voice filled the air.

"Thank you… Imai-san… Ako-chan…"

These few words carried with them such a weight that it left Lisa and Ako momentarily speechless. They knew what it truly meant for Rinko and hearing it from her directly in such a situation was not something that either of them had expected.

Neither Lisa nor Ako noticed the small smile that formed on Rinko's lips, too busy discussing amongst themselves how to properly respond to Rinko. This gave Rinko all the time that she would need to think about the past few hours and how she felt about it all. From the live itself to seeing the side of the girls in Afterglow that she was sure would not be common knowledge…

'At the end of the day… I'm happy I came here… with Imai-san and Ako-chan…' Rinko thought to herself before her gaze drifted elsewhere, 'And maybe… one day…'

As Lisa and Ako were preoccupied with trying to find a proper way to respond, Rinko's gaze slowly drifted somewhere else. To her hand and, more specifically, the warmth that was still tingling the tips of her fingers. Despite being barely conscious at the time, Rinko could still remember the feeling of that person holding and supporting her…

And with the sun setting beyond the horizon in front of them, only a single thought came up in Rinko's mind. To get better and seek out the warmth that she was missing from her life once again.

* * *

**And that wraps up the first chapter of my fourth multi-chapter series for this fandom in three years! I am hoping to get a new chapter for this story out at least once a month, preferably at the same schedule as Scarlet Sunlight was on once upon a time, but I guess we will all have to wait and see to find out.**

**I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**


	2. The Crossroad

**All right, the last chapter was a ton of fun, let's see where we get to in today's chapter, shall we~? The length of this chapter should be a testament to how busy I have been since I last published something. That being said, I will admit that between the 3k-4k for the word count has been my goal from the start for this story, so… at least I reached that?**

**Disclaimer's the same as always like Ran would say: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party**

**Special thanks to LightZephyr for the beta read!**

**Beta note: I take full responsibility for "making" Fal write **_**that**_** scene in, so try not to give him too bad of a time for allowing himself to be manipulated so easily, all right~?**

* * *

"In that case, we'll leave it in your hands, Lisa-san, Ako," Ran dipped her head in the direction of the two Roselia members who were still conscious, with the rest of the Afterglow girls following soon after. Having completed her pleasantries, the five of them turned around and headed back to the stage to help cleaning the stage after their performance.

That is, to say, that that was their original plan. What actually ended up happening was something else entirely.

"What do you mean we 'don't need to do anything'?" Tomoe exclaimed when she was told the news. She and her four friends had all picked up a broom of their own to aid in the cleaning, but before any of them could begin they were approached by a girl about the same height as Himari. She had blue hair hanging loosely over her right shoulder, the ends of it were held together by a reddish-pink scrunchie, and an announcement to tell them.

"That is correct, Tomoe-san," the shorter girl nodded with a small smile. Both Ran and Moca could see that she had hoped to be able to leave it at that, but when Tomoe had opened her mouth again the blue-haired girl knew she had to initiate plan B, "Really, it is all right. Afterglow-san did great tonight and you should all go home and relax. Leave the cleaning to us, we can handle it just fine."

"But— " Tomoe tried desperately, only to have not one but two hands pushed in her face.

"We appreciate it, thank you," Ran tilted her head downwards in the younger girl's direction, an action that was mirrored almost instantaneously. As Himari and Tsugumi followed Ran's lead, Ran grabbed a fistful of Tomoe's shirt and used it to forcefully drag her friend away before she could escalate things some more.

"Bye, Rokka~ Don't stay up too late~," Moca waved after offering her broom to Rokka. With her farewell done as well, she jogged to try and catch up to Ran and the others. It wasn't until she was outside that she could walk side-by-side with the other members of Afterglow again. Moca contemplated simply rejoining the group, but an opening in one of her friends' defenses made her change her mind quite quickly.

"Uuuuu… eeeee… haaaaaaaaaa…" Moca trailed off as she tip-toed and crouched behind one of her friends. By now, all four remaining girls of Afterglow had realized that Moca was right behind them, but the poor victim of Moca's next move had no time to try and prevent what she knew was about to happen.

"RA!" Moca yelled enthusiastically as she jumped to a standing position. As Moca moved, she grabbed the outer edges of Himari's skirt and brought it up with her. The high-pitched scream that followed, accompanied by three bonks to Moca's head, told Moca that her plan had succeeded.

She knew that she would wake up in the morning with a throbbing headache, but to Moca, this was a price she was more than willing to pay up.

"So now that we don't have to do our chores… what's next?" Tsugumi asked, glancing at both Moca and Himari as she voiced the question. As neither of them were in the position to properly answer the brunette's question, Tsugumi directed it to Ran and Tomoe, "Do either of you two have any plans?"

"I was actually planning on joining you and staying over at your parents' café for an hour or two. My parents are working late today and Ako is still back there taking care of Rinko-san," Tomoe shrugged, subtly nodding her head in the direction they came from when she mentioned her sister's name. When Tomoe realized that she did not have much else to say, she turned to Ran with a raised eyebrow, "How about you?"

"I am fine with joining you, as always," Ran muttered, avoiding eye contact with the taller girl as she spoke. Unfortunately for her, this meant that she had to watch a laughing Moca being chased by a red-faced Himari. Suppressing the urge to sigh, Ran turned back to the two friends who appeared to be significantly calmer.

"Father told me to be home by nine, I am free to do what I want until then," Ran thought out loud as she recalled her father's words. The vocalist made the conscious decision to rephrase what her father had told her. Unbeknownst to Ran, however, the other four girls could see right through her and make an educated guess as to what he had actually told her.

The five girls of Afterglow then fell in somewhat of an awkward silence, one that none of them knew how to break. Himari at least had the foresight to pull her friends to the side, avoiding the situation where they would block off part of the road during their moment of indecision.

Depending on who one would ask, the memory of Ran and Tomoe standing still in the middle of the road while lost in thought would either be the most awkward or the most amusing scene the childhood friends had ever witnessed. Potentially second only to the first sleepover they had together after learning that Ran was scared of the dark.

Moca could still occasionally be seen snickering whenever she looked back to that night.

"Actually, about that…" Moca began, trailing off as she took a moment to look around her. It wasn't immediately apparent why she did so, but her four closest friends all came to the same conclusion: Moca was silently calculating how far away they were to the bakery and whether or not she'd be able to get there before it closed.

"I know I know, we should hurry up so that Moca can get her bread," Tomoe sighed, feeling like she had Moca all figured out. The redhead would, therefore, be very surprised when Moca reached out for and grabbed her wrist to stop her, "Is something wrong, Moca? If we don't hurry we might not make it in time."

"That… wasn't it, Tomo-chin," Moca said with a sheepish smile. Before Tomoe could ask the question that was on everybody's mind, Moca took the initiative to answer it for them, "Moca-chan has to be home in an hour—."

"But that means Moca-chan has enough time to join us for a quick snack, right?" Tsugumi asked, her curiosity pushing her to interrupt Moca before she could finish speaking. Tsugumi realized this too late and quickly apologized for that.

"If you let me finish, Tsugu, I was getting to that," Moca sighed, although the way the corners of her mouth quivered her friends could tell that she was not too upset by the interruption. After taking a deep breath, Moca looked at her friends and picked up where she left off as if Tsugumi had never spoken, "Moca-chan needs to be home in an hour, but Moca-chan _also_ needs to make a bit of a detour before that."

"Which means you have to go now?" Tomoe asked, sounding somewhat disappointed that the group had to split up much sooner than she had expected them to. By the looks of the other girls standing beside her, Tomoe knew that she was not the only one who felt this way.

"Well, if it can't be helped… good luck, Moca-chan. And good night, we'll see you tomorrow," Tsugumi gave her friend a quick hug before watching Moca say goodbye to the other three as well. Right as Moca was about to run down a side alley, Tsugumi added, "Today was fun as always."

Moca's only acknowledgment to having heard the keyboardist was a small wave of her hand. And then she was gone, changing the group of five to merely an incomplete collection of four.

"That was weird," Himari thought out loud after a few moments had passed since Moca's departure. She was still smoothening out the edges of her skirt when she spoke again, "What do you think Moca needs to do if she feels that she can't tell us about it? Do you think we should follow her?"

"I really don't think we should follow a friend if she's made it clear she doesn't want to be followed," Tomoe reprimanded Himari with a gentle slap on the wrist. Then, in a mellower voice, Tomoe said, "Remember what happened when we followed Tsugu into that clothes store a few weeks back?"

"Yeah…" Tsugumi nodded in agreement, doing a double-take a split second later when her brain fully processed what Tomoe had just said, "Wait, you did what?!"

As Tomoe was doing everything she could to avoid the wrath of the brunette standing twelve centimeters shorter than her, Himari approached Ran after noticing the forlorn look in her eyes. The two stood there for a few moments until Himari eventually broke it.

"You're worried about Moca, aren't you?" Himari asked while placing her hand on top of Ran's shoulder. She could feel Ran's body stiffen slightly at the touch, but before Himari could pull her hand off again she saw how Ran relaxed again, "I'm sure Moca will be all right. She's a lot smarter than people might think, even if it hurts me to admit that. So there's no way that Moca will do anything that will get her in trouble. Well… get her in too much trouble, anyway."

"If something goes wrong, we can always get Tomoe to hunt her down or something," Ran joked, much to Himari's amusement. When Himari's laughter died down, Ran nodded in the direction of her other two friends, "Come on, let's separate those two and head to the café of Tsugumi's parents. I'll take Tsugumi, you take Tomoe."

Not waiting for a response and trusting Himari to follow her lead, Ran walked up to Tsugumi, grabbed her by arm and pulled her along with her. Tsugumi squirmed against Ran's hold at first but eventually allowed herself to be dragged away after realizing that she could not escape her friend's grip on her.

Glancing to her side, Ran saw that Himari had gotten a handful of Tomoe's shirt and was using it to make the drummer follow Ran's footsteps. When Ran and Himari noticed that the girls they were leading had calmed down again, they let go of their respective prisoner and walked along in silence.

They did not talk much after that as they hurried through the streets to get to the Hazawa Café faster. As a matter of fact, they did not talk at all, a common occurrence when they would be an incomplete group. Afterglow had been close friends for years, well over a decade had passed since they had first met, and the five of them no longer saw each other as friends; the five of them were family, five pieces strong enough to stand on their own but only truly shining when together.

This unity of them was their greatest strength. It allowed them to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles time after time, to keep going when the going went rough. And to compete with the numerous other bands that performed in the live houses that Afterglow liked to frequent.

"—an"

But it was also this bond that had proven to be Afterglow's biggest weakness. By relying so much on the presence of another, the five of them would require the other four to remain the same as always, to be exactly how they have been for so long. But, as they would soon realize, people grow, and when people grow… they change.

"Oi! Earth to Ran, anyone in there?"

"What?!" Ran whirled around to glare at the taller girl who had yanked the collar of her shirt in an effort to get her attention. As the vocalist was rubbing her sore throat, she added, "Weren't we planning to stay at Tsugumi's parents' café for a bit before going home? Why are you stopping me now?"

"You must really be out of it…" Tomoe sighed with a smile. Before Ran could burst and ask her what she was talking about, Tomoe grabbed Ran by the shoulder and guided her to turn around, "Noticed anything familiar?"

"I…" Ran trailed off when she saw what Tomoe wanted to show her.

Having been completely lost in thought, Ran hadn't been paying any attention to where they were going or even where they were. She had trusted her instincts and allowed her legs to drive her forth. And, in the case where she would put herself in a position that endangered her life, Ran knew her friends would try and stop her.

As Ran was trying to process the fact that she had almost just walked right past their destination, Tomoe led the group inside the warm and familiar building.

And warm and familiar it was.

The café had always been known for its bright lighting, and that late-afternoon it was no different. Although the sun had already set enough for it to become a non-factor in the lighting, the lamps inside the café were doing all the heavy lifting. With careful positioning and playing around with the intensity of each lamp, the owners managed to create enough light to properly illuminate the interior, but not hurt the eyes of their patrons. But that was not all that they did, either.

Tsugumi had told her friends about the mini-competition her parents were holding, a playful game where they recorded how well the workers had cleaned their assigned areas. Her parents knew that they needed to motivate the group of younger workers they employed, so they took a huge gambit in allowing the winner of the weekly competition to choose their own reward.

Playing with the odds could result in it going one of two ways, but based on how the wooden furniture was basically _shining_ Tomoe, Himari, and Ran could make a very educated guess as to how that went. Even Tsugumi, who worked there more days of the week than she didn't, admitted to being surprised when she saw how hard she would have to work to try and close the gap with her colleague.

"Everybody wants the usual, I assume?" Tsugumi asked her friends, smiling in acknowledgment when all three of them nodded their heads. She then hurried off to talk with one of her newer colleagues, only to walk back a few minutes later to see her friends already seated. Tsugumi took her rightful place by Himari's side before speaking again, "So… did anybody actually have, well… any idea what to do now?"

"There is something we should probably talk about, but maybe we need to wait until Moca is here so we can discuss it together?" Himari asked after a momentary pause, looking at her friends to gauge their reactions. She should have known better than to hope to be given a way out, especially when she was stuck between a wall and a Tsugumi.

Neither Ran nor Tomoe seemed like they would let this go, and even Tsugumi was more interested than Himari would have expected or hoped her to be. Himari let out a sigh, resigning herself to her fate that she had doomed herself in before she eventually decided on what she wanted to do.

Himari knew better than anyone that her friends would not really have allowed her a way out.

* * *

Almost two hours had passed since the four members of Afterglow had arrived at the famous Hazawa Café. Having said their goodbyes to Himari and Tsugumi, Himari saying there were still some cakes she wanted to try out before going home, Ran and Tomoe split from the group and stepped outside. Compared to how it was before they entered the café, the air had gotten a lot colder; enough so that even Ran had to bundle herself up to try and keep warm.

The two friends had been walking side-by-side in relative silence, but when the familiar playground was quickly coming into view, they both knew that they had to break the silence. It was Tomoe who did so, but the way she did surprised Ran.

"Yes, I do," Ran confirmed with a firm nod, no signs of hesitation evident on her face. Ran recalled her earlier response at the café and offered a smile to Tomoe, "We need to split up here, right? I'll see you tomorrow, good night."

Ran tilted her head down and walked down the path to her right, knowing that Tomoe would be taking the path to the left. The vocalist quickened her pace in the hopes of getting out of sight of her friend faster, but even then she did not stop until she was three blocks further.

In… Out… In… Out… despite the training and practice she did to fulfill her responsibilities as the band's lead vocalist, Ran's breathing was ragged and irregular, a testament to how much exercise she got: barely any.

After she had calmed down and allowed her beating heart to slow down to a more manageable pace, Ran spared one last glance in the direction of the Hazawa Café. And, as she did, she couldn't help but feel more motivated by this, as if the mere thought of the earlier conversation she had with her friends was enough to rejuvenate her energy.

No matter what happened, she would stay by her choice. She would keep going at it again and again and make sure that she would get the results that she wanted to receive.

"As Minato-san might say…" Ran whispered to herself, closing her eyes to allow a stronger, more vivid image of her rival to pop up in her mind, "It is time to show the world the real me!"

* * *

**And that is all for today's chapter! Yes, I know it isn't the same length as a typical chapter of Scarlet Sunlight was, but I never intended for Shining Sunlight to be the same kind of story. Different story, different writing style and, ultimately, different chapter lengths.**

**Quick plugin here: I have a Discord server now that pretty much takes over the role my Tumblr used to have; both of them, technically. The invite link to the server can be found on either one of my former Tumblrs as the most recent post.**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter, leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**


	3. Fluttering Wings

**All right, ****on to the next chapter. Apologies for the later-than-usual upload, a few things were going on in real life that had to be settled first before I could focus on wrapping up this chapter. As much as I would love to spend more time writing, things don't always go the way you want them to…**

**Special thanks to ****LightZephyr**** for the beta read.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

"If you let me finish, Tsugu, I was getting to that," Moca sighed, although the way the corners of her mouth quivered her friends could tell that she was not too upset by the interruption. After taking a deep breath, Moca looked at her friends and picked up where she left off as if Tsugumi had never spoken, "Moca-chan needs to be home in an hour, but Moca-chan _also_ needs to make a bit of a detour before that."

After separating from her friends, Moca rushed through the near-empty streets at a brisk pace. Moca weaved in and out of side alleys with practiced precision, assured of the fact that she would not be able to find her way if this was her first time going this way. The self-proclaimed genius did not stop to look back until she was four blocks away from where she last saw Ran and the others.

It was also only at that point when Moca realized how out of breath she was. She might have been a genius, but being a genius did not automatically translate to possessing limitless stamina.

"This should be far enough," Moca thought out loud as she allowed herself a momentary break to look around at her surroundings. Despite knowing where she wanted—no, _needed_ to go, it was not like she came to this part of town very often.

Thankfully for Moca, she could recognize the building she was looking for the moment she saw it. A part of her, the prideful part, wanted to believe that she could have found it even without the presence of the large and colorful sign hanging in front of it, but Moca knew better. She was not accustomed to this area and would have been walking in circles had it not been for the lifesaver.

After taking a moment to look around her and make sure that she was not followed, Moca entered the building with a determined look on her face.

* * *

"Mama, Moca is home!" Moca called out as she entered her home half an hour later. The walk back had been rather uneventful and Moca managed to arrive home without much trouble. That is to say, that there was a single problem that Moca had been struggling with on her way home.

Thanks to the _little_ detour she had to take, Moca lost over an hour of her time. An hour, the guitarist noted for the umpteenth time that evening to herself, that made the big difference between being able to arrive at her favorite bakery before it closed.

As it so happened, Moca was now tired, aching, and hungry. A combination of three things that were never a good thing for the self-proclaimed genius.

Moca was so engrossed in her own little world cursing everything that got in her way that she did not look where she was walking and nearly tripped over something. Moca broke her fall, looked at her hands and knees to make sure nothing had been injured by her lack of attentiveness and then turned to see what was the cause of her most recent misfortune.

It was at that moment that Moca's mother appeared in the corridor flanked by a face that Moca was all too familiar with.

"You're home already?" Moca's mother asked when she saw her daughter putting her shoes in the shoe rack. Without even letting Moca properly respond to her first question, she already bombarded Moca with a second, "I assume everything went well then?"

"It is in my bag, I'll drop it off in the kitchen soon," Moca's reply was a lot more distant than her mother had been anticipating and it took her a second or two to figure out the cause of it. Of course, Moca's stomach decided to take the opportunity to answer everybody's unvoiced question at that very moment.

Flustered at both the sound her stomach made and the laugh of the girl who stood behind her mother, Moca tightened her grip on her bag strap and walked past both people standing in her way, "On second thought, Moca-chan will be dropping it off right now. Bye, mama, Kuroba-san."

A few moments after that interaction, Moca found herself in the kitchen digging through her bag to find the ingredients her mother had asked Moca to buy on her way home. Moca was so engrossed by trying to sort through the mess that was the interior of her bag that she barely noticed the presence of another person in the room with her.

"You're not acting much like your usual self, are you?" a familiar voice asked Moca, prompting the younger girl in the kitchen to stop scattering the contents of her bag on the dining table and turn to the doorway.

Standing there was the same girl who followed Moca's mother in greeting Moca back home, casually leaning against the doorframe as if she did not have a care in the world. Her black hair had been tied up into a high ponytail that was held in place by a white-colored scrunchie. Two bangs drooped down the side of her face, framing the girl's face and resting right below her shoulders. The school uniform that she wore could be mistaken for that of Haneoka Senior High's outfit had it not been for the navy-colored blazer she wore.

"I'm tired and hungry, what do you want from me?" Moca, despite herself, could not stop the annoyance that had been building up inside her all afternoon from seeping into her voice. She quickly realized her mistake, took a deep breath to try and calm herself down, and apologized to the other girl, "I'm sorry, that came off wrong. But what _did_ you want from little old Moca-chan?"

"Little, yes. Old? You're still a year younger than I am," Kuroba laughed as she straightened herself out, taking a step to close the distance between her and Moca. She took a moment to take a look at Moca, a good long look, and made a mental note about what she had seen.

'You really have grown a lot since the last time I saw you…' the black-haired girl thought to herself with a smile. She knew that Moca would catch on quickly to what she was doing. Which was why she came prepared for this exact moment.

"Here, Moca. I want you to have this," Kuroba said, that same smile still on her face. As the words left her mouth, Kuroba pulled something out of her pocket and placed it in Moca's hand. Kuroba took extra precautions to make sure that her hand would hide the object in question from Moca's vision, something she knew would irk the younger girl greatly.

"Just see it as returning the favor from so long ago," Kuroba added with a small smile, one that truly radiated the darkness that was still hiding behind her eyes. Before Moca could open her mouth to comment on this, Kuroba had already let go of the younger girl and gave her a playful wink, "And if you need anything else, you know where to find me. Good luck, Moca."

Kuroba had already turned around and was halfway down the hallway by the time Moca realized that the older girl had left. Shrugging this off and making a mental note to properly thank Kuroba the next time she'd run into her, Moca made her way to her room with numerous thoughts swirling around in her head.

'Knowing her, it probably won't be long now,' Moca thought to herself, allowing a soft snicker to escape her lips before turning serious again. Kuroba had come all this way to the Aoba household, probably to do other things as well but Moca knew that Kuroba had mainly come there to meet Moca.

And give Moca the small object that was now safely in her hand.

"Why did Kuroba-san give me this?" Moca asked nobody in particular when she opened her hand to see a single USB stick laying innocently on top of her palm. Trusting the older girl to not pull a prank on her in the form of a virus-filled device, Moca was about to plug the USB into her laptop when another voice interrupted her.

"Moca! Get down here, we're starting dinner!"

Suppressing the urge to let out a groan of annoyance and frustration, Moca settled on a drawn-out sigh instead. Moca then carefully placed her gift on top of her laptop before hurrying downstairs at a brisk pace in an effort to avoid her mother's wrath.

* * *

The following morning arrived much too soon for Moca. The lead guitarist of Afterglow had been awake longer than usual, even for her standards, to try and figure out how to properly use what Kuroba had given her. Moca might have been a night owl, but a little-known fact about Moca was that even she had her limits. Pulling an all-nighter in order to try and figure out Kuroba's parting gift was able to get her dangerously close to said limit.

Which is exactly why the bags under Moca's eyes were the first thing that Moca's beloved childhood friends noticed about her first when they saw Moca walk inside the classroom.

"Moca-chan! You look horrible!" Tsugumi blurted out, her mouth working faster than her brain yet again which prompted a dangerous look in both Tomoe's and Himari's eyes. The brunette realized, with her two friends' help, what she had just said and tried to quickly backtrack, "Ah, that wasn't what I meant to say! It's just… um… Moca-chan looks like she did not sleep last night?"

"Wow, that was a new record… barely a second later and Tsugu is already trying to correct her mistake," Tomoe thought out loud before taking a swift step to her right in an effort to dodge Himari's attempt at jabbing the redhead in the side. The other three members of Afterglow did not pay any attention to the little scuffle between Tomoe and Himari, instead being much more focused at what Moca had been doing.

"And that is pretty much it," Moca finished getting her friends caught up with the events of the previous evening. Or, at the very least, Ran and Tsugumi were now properly informed as Himari and Tomoe were busy in a conversation of their own at that point.

Seeing that she was ignored by two of her friends was irking Moca at first, but this feeling quickly subsided when she was reminded of something. And, seeing an opening, Moca dove in to ask the question that had been weighing her down.

"Tomo-chin, is Ako-chin free this afternoon?" Moca asked Tomoe, saving Tomoe from being bombarded by Himari but forcing the redhead into Moca's line of sight. Before anyone could question Moca's motives, Moca decided to explain what she wanted to do, "Moca-chan wanted to ask Ako-chin a question."

"No, you may not date Ako. What? Our parents told us we were not allowed to date before we graduated high school," Tomoe added the last bit when she saw the incredulous looks her friends were giving her, no doubt wondering what Tomoe was thinking. The redhead was quick to realize that her leap in logic had been incorrect and, in a more serious tone, she turned back to Moca, "So if you don't want to date Ako, what do you need her for that we can't do?"

"Don't take it the wrong way Tomo-chin, but Moca-chan is not interested in Ako-chin that way. And Moca-chan needs to see Ako-chin because Ako-chin is the one with the most experience with this that Moca-chan knows of," Moca added with a shrug. Moca knew her friends well enough to know that they would continue questioning her, but Moca was also not sure if she wanted to tell them the full truth. After all, if what Moca had planned would go her way, it would naturally take away from the time Moca had to spend with her friends.

Deciding that her friends deserved to know _something_ at the very least, Moca settled on telling them a little bit of the truth. After all, if there was one thing her friends were not it was easily giving up on finding out why one of their friends was acting weirder than usual.

"The daughter of a friend of mama's gave Moca-chan a parting gift the other day, and Moca-chan needs Ako-chin's help to install the program."

* * *

"And… Ako thinks that should do it!" the purple-haired drummer exclaimed happily, a relieved grin on her face as she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. After gratefully accepting the glass of orange juice from Moca, Ako added, "Ako is impressed though, that was one annoying program to get working. How did Moca-chin get it?"

"A friend of Moca-chan gave it to me," Moca replied right away without missing a beat. In contrast to the younger girl who was drinking juice, Moca had made herself a cup of green tea. Before Ako could question her more about the origins of the program, Moca decided to try and redirect the focus of the conversation elsewhere, "So how did you manage to get it to work?"

"That's a funny story, actually," Ako trailed off, taking the opportunity to relish the sweetness of the orange juice she had been given before turning to Moca and giving her a proper response. Or, at least, a response that seemed more proper in Ako's opinion, "Moca-chin isn't the first person who asked Ako for help to get this to work."

Moca was about to ask who Ako had helped with before but managed to stop herself. At the end of the day, it was not Moca's business who Ako helped and she should just be focusing on what was right in front of her: a friend who helped her clear up a problem.

"That aside, want to stay over for dinner?" Moca offered the shorter girl, hoping to entice Tomoe's sister with the idea of food, "Moca-chan is sure mama is okay having an extra mouth to feed."

Ako's eyes lit up at the thought of spending dinner at the Aoba household, but they were quick to dim again soon after when she remembered that she could not. After explaining to Moca that she was expected home in twenty minutes, Ako excused herself to return home where she knew a hot meal was waiting for her.

The next hour felt like it ticked away at a snail's pace for Moca. Not only had Moca been anticipating to try out Kuroba's gift all day, but the dinner she shared with her mother was filled with her mother asking Moca one difficult question after the other. When Moca's mother teasingly asked Moca if she had a thing for Ako, Moca took that as a cue to stand up from the table and walk away.

The laughter from Moca's mother could still reach Moca's ears when she had arrived in the safety of her room.

"Mama, I love you… but too far is too far, poor Moca-chan can only take so much…" Moca sighed, surprising herself by voicing her thoughts instead of keeping them to herself. She was, however, thankful that nobody was around to hear her.

Shrugging this last thought off, Moca walked up to her laptop and launched the program she had been dying to launch. Having known Kuroba as long as she had, Moca knew that she had been given the program to a new game that the black-haired girl was into. And with Kuroba's track record, Moca could only imagine how breath-taking the game would be.

She was not disappointed when she finally launched the game.

The laptop screen turned into a stream of vibrant and radiant colors before merging as one in the center and showcasing the title card decorated with an indigo inferno. As soon as it had started, it was already over and Moca was introduced to the character selection screen. Moca had already spent her time imagining how she would design the avatar and make the best looking avatar that she could, but this would not be necessary. Much to Moca's disappointment, she was taken to the character _selection_ screen and not the character _creation_ screen.

Staring straight at Moca, or as much as it could with its featureless face, was a mechanical-looking humanoid creature. It was wearing an armor of obsidian black with accents of purple where the joints would be located if it were human. Jutting out from its knees and elbows were a single spike of metal that Moca assumed would be used to maximize its offensive powers.

To complete the look was a black helmet protecting its head. The helmet had vibrant purple glass where its face would be, although Moca was unable to see through it to see the face. Trailing behind the top of the mask, one on either side, was another strip of metal that reminded Moca strongly of ears.

"Wow…" Moca breathed out after she had finally taken in the sight in front of her. Despite this being the first time Moca saw the avatar in front of her, it was almost like it was calling out to her. As if in a different life Moca would practically grow up alongside this avatar.

"All right, let's see what you can do, um… do you have a name yet?" Moca asked nobody in particular when she realized that she had not been prompted to name the avatar. It was then that Moca's eyes landed on the small box hovering in front of her avatar's midsection that depicted two words in big letters. Moca's grin widened when she read what the sign was saying, giving Moca a name to associate with her new avatar.

Black Lotus.

* * *

**And that is all for today's chapter! Kuroba, by the way, is not an OC; just a little easter egg for those who know who I am referring to with that name. And while it would be funny to say that she is "Black Leaf" (as opposed to Aoba's "Green Leaf" or even "Blue Leaf" if we take the two characters of her surname individually instead of as one), the characters spelling out Kuroba's name would actually translate to "Black Wing" (the same wing that is in Tsugumi's surname). Special thanks to ****LightZephyr**** for reminding me of Kuroba's existence and helping me to incorporate the girl into the chapter.**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**

**Quick plugin here: I have a Discord server now that pretty much takes over the role my Tumblr used to have; both of them, technically. The invite link to the server can be found on either one of my former Tumblrs.**


	4. Something Sunlight

**As promised, ****Reiriniverse****, this chapter has been titled as per your recommendation. Aside from Rei, I also want to thank ****LightZephyr**** for beta reading the chapter and ****Namitaa776**** for the suggestions for this chapter.**

**I was planning on getting a fifth-anniversary oneshot up, but that did not work out all that well****… so have another chapter of ****Shining Sunlight**** instead!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

"All right, let's see what you can do, um… do you have a name yet?" Moca asked nobody in particular when she realized that she had not been prompted to name the avatar. It was then that Moca's eyes landed on the small box hovering in front of her avatar's midsection that depicted two words in big letters. Moca's grin widened when she read what the sign was saying, giving Moca a name to associate with her new avatar.

Black Lotus.

'Lotus… Now what did Ran tell me that flower meant…?' Moca thought to herself as she raked her brain for an answer to the unvoiced question. Admittedly, Moca never paid much attention to the meaning of flowers as much as she possibly could with Mitake Ran as her best friend. Normally she would not be too concerned by this as Ran had never been too into flower language herself, but Moca was kicking herself for being uninformed.

Kuroba had gone to great lengths to give her not only the game but the Black Lotus character on top of that.

"No use worrying about stuff I cannot come out myself, time to see what this game is about!" Moca cheered in an effort to raise her mood. This effort proved to be futile as she saw that her computer needed to download and install updates. Moca postponed her game playing time to the following day with a heavy heart, knowing that she would likely be unable to play that night.

"That's a shame, but nothing Moca-chan can do about that…" Moca sighed, already resigning herself to doing something else for the day. Deciding that she did not need to know the answer right away, Moca headed downstairs to grab herself a drink.

When Moca walked back in her room with a can of juice a few minutes later, she was met with a pleasant surprise.

"Ran?"

Moca never had much difficulty reading Ran's mood when it came down to it, even amongst the other members of Afterglow. The two of them shared a bond that allowed them a near-telepathic level of understanding, so much so that even Tomoe could be heard joking about this from time to time.

This was exactly why Moca was surprised to find out that Ran's face betrayed little to any emotion. No frown, no glint in her eyes, no twitch of her cheek to indicate a smile or even a smirk. At that very moment, Ran was as unreadable to Moca as a sign that says 'pull' was to a certain purple-haired guitarist. And this knowledge terrified Moca, who usually relished in her ability to know Ran better than anyone else she knew to the point of regularly claiming she knew Ran better than Ran knew herself.

"If Tomo-chin or even Hii-chan knew that Ran sneaked out of her house to visit little old Moca-chan in her room at night…" Moca trailed off with a playful smirk in the hopes of receiving a response of some kind. When Ran remained quiet, Moca let out a sigh of annoyance and dropped the facade, "All right all right, Ran doesn't want to play games tonight, Moca-chan gets it. So why is Ran here anyway?"

"On the contrary, Moca…" Ran's composure finally cracked the moment the vocalist turned the other way and avoided Moca's gaze. This action piqued Moca's curiosity, but before Moca could ask Ran about it she had her unvoiced question answered, "Moca is getting herself into something new… without the rest of us?"

It took a few seconds for Moca's brain to properly process not only what Ran had said but also what she did not say, knowing that she had to do both to understand her friend's request. When Moca finally did, she could not help but crack a smile.

"All right all right, but let's get the others here as well. Otherwise, Moca-chan will spend all her time explaining everything to Ran only to have to start from scratch for everybody else," Moca said, explaining her thought process to Ran who had to admit that she had to agree with Moca. Moca was about to say something else but the sound of a rumbling stomach interrupted her, prompting her to stifle a laugh before coming up with something else to say, "If we hurry, mama might still have some food that we can heat up for you."

"Before we do that… there's something else I wanted to ask you."

* * *

"And that is pretty much it, Ran visited Moca-chan late at night and convinced Moca-chan to share this with everyone," Moca explained with an exaggerated wave of her hands when the members of Afterglow met up the following afternoon. What Moca left out, however, was that Ran had insisted on getting her copy of the game right away. The vocalist did not need to be part of the circle that Moca's flash drive was moving in because she had already installed her version.

Recalling the events of the previous night, Moca shuddered at the memory of Ran's avatar. Moca's Black Lotus had radiated an aura of power and strength that had left the guitarist in silent awe. Ran's avatar, on the other hand, had a different kind of energy surrounding her.

Red Endymion appeared to be an avatar significantly shorter than Black Lotus would be had they been standing side-by-side but somehow seemed to draw in twice the attention that Black Lotus would have. The body was painted in its namesake's color, with the arms and the back of the avatar a more vibrant red than the rest of its body. Unlike Lotus who was wearing a helmet to hide its face, Endymion relied on a mask of black glass to hide its face from view.

Cascading down the back of the avatar's head was a thin sheet of white-colored metal that neither Moca nor Ran had been able to determine its function. Was it supposed to symbolize the avatar's hair? Did it hide some form of powerful weapon of mass destruction? They might never find out…

Completing the design of Ran's avatar was the intricate pattern on the body's abdomen and legs that was comprised of a checkerboard-like pattern of darker and lighter shades of red. Ran did not know what the purpose or meaning of this had been, but she could not deny that she could appreciate the design.

"So when do we get to make this character of ours?" Tomoe's question shook Moca out of her train of thoughts and brought her back to the present. Moca eyed her friend's laptop screen to see how far the installation process was at only to see that it was close to completion.

"That's the thing… Moca-chan doesn't think Tomo-chin needs to worry her pretty little head about that," Moca said with a smirk, a smirk that only grew wider when she saw the reaction she managed to get out of her friend. Before Tomoe could properly respond, Moca nodded to the computer screen.

"Wait, what?"

"We thought the game came with a pre-built avatar already, but it turns out it makes an avatar on the spot depending on the person who installs it," Ran explained for Moca who had walked over to assist Himari, although not without her fair share of teasing the leader of the band. Ran then saw that Tomoe's avatar had already materialized in front of the drummer and was quick to point it out, "Look, your avatar is already there."

Tomoe turned to look at what Ran was pointing and, sure enough, the avatar named Blue Chaos was staring right back at the redhead. The avatar's armor was of a blue so dark it could easily have been mistaken for black. Around the neck was a teal-colored ring, but Tomoe could not identify if that was supposed to be a choker or even a necklace.

Around the waist, the armor started to jut outwards in what could either be tendrils or even spikes. The intricate pattern and close proximity of the metal to one another gave off the image that the avatar was wearing a skirt to Tomoe. And, unlike the avatars of Moca and Ran, Tomoe's avatar had eyes. Featureless eyes that did not have a visible distinction between its pupil, iris or sclera; it was all just a purple-colored area.

"So that is… me?" Tomoe breathed out as she stared at her avatar in both bewilderment and amazement. Unlike her younger sister who was borderline obsessed with them, Tomoe had never been very interested in playing games whatsoever. Seeing how beautiful the design of her avatar was gave the redhead an inkling of an idea as to how the in-game world would look like.

Tomoe was finally starting to see why Ako was almost inseparable from her precious games.

"Well, yes and no," Ran replied as she pulled up a chair to sit by Tomoe's side. The look on Tomoe's face gave away more than enough for Ran to know she needed to explain it further, "It's like if you were to be driving a car. You control the car and the car will move accordingly, but you are not the car."

"That makes sense, I guess," Tomoe said with a small nod of understanding, following along with Ran's train of thoughts. It was only then that Tomoe realized that she had only been giving half of the answer she requested, "But what makes you say that they are us then?"

At this Ran remained silent for a while, not only unsure how to respond to Tomoe's question but also how to properly phrase it. After all, Ran had already received an explanation when she had asked the same question to Moca… of course, the one who answered Ran was Moca, so Ran had to pull up a mental dictionary to decode the message.

"Moca explained it, but it was a very Moca-like explanation," Ran began her response with a sheepish smile, hoping that Tomoe could read in between the lines there. On that note, Ran was thankful that she was at least explaining it to Tomoe rather than Himari or Tsugumi.

Not that Ran would ever be caught saying that out loud to either of her two friends.

"It had something to do with how the game automatically generates the avatar the moment it is installed or something," Ran began her explanation as she motioned towards Tomoe's avatar, knowing that this little action would not go unnoticed by the drummer, "Moca said something about how the program scans through the computer and generates an image of who we could have been in a different life in a different universe. Or so Moca claims, anyway."

As Ran was trying her best to answer Tomoe's questions, Moca had taken it upon herself to assist Himari and Tsugumi and helping the two girls install the game properly. While Himari's computer was still busy installing the program and downloading additional files, Moca waddled over to see how her favorite brunette was doing.

"Um, Moca-chan? Is this good?" Tsugumi asked the moment she realized that Moca was standing beside her. The keyboardist's voice betrayed the amount of uncertainty she was feeling to the point that Moca did not even need to see the fear in Tsugumi's eyes to understand.

Moca motioned Tsugumi to scoot to the side and make room for Moca, something that Tsugumi was quick to do, and scanned Tsugumi's computer screen to see what was wrong. It took Moca a second or two to realize that nothing was wrong, but before Moca could find the words to reassure her friend she had been directed to look at the middle of the screen by the very same friend she wanted to help.

Standing in the middle of the screen was a yellow-colored avatar who Moca was sure would be even shorter than Ran's avatar. Like the other avatars of this game Moca had seen so far, the avatar's primary color matched its name; in Tsugumi's case, her avatar was predominantly of a golden yellow shade with accents of white here and there.

Moca could see the resemblance that it had with Tomoe's avatar that Moca had seen only seconds ago despite the stark contrast in color. Tsugumi's avatar also had eyes like Tomoe's avatar did, although its eyes were golden in color. It even appeared to have hair that was tied up on the back of its head and reached down below her shoulders, taking the shape that most closely resembled an upside-down fan. The only other discerning feature of Tsugumi's Yellow Peace was the white tiara that rested on top of its head.

Moca almost blurted out her answer to Tsugumi's question but managed to stop herself at the last second. She knew as well as anyone in Afterglow that Tsugumi had been struggling with confidence issues from a young age. Therefore, Moca had to think of something to say on the spot.

"I think that's great, Tsugu," Moca said with a smile before directing her friend's attention to the avatar's name, "And look! Just like the Tsugurific Tsugu, Yellow Peace will brighten everybody's days and shine the light on the path we must take."

"M-Moca-chan!"

"All right all right, but there's nothing wrong with your avatar," Moca reassured Tsugumi with a small sigh at being stopped. When she saw that Tsugumi did not seem at all reassured by this knowledge, Moca took a deep breath and tried again, "Look, Tsugu. There's no 'best' or 'worst' in this game, just whoever fits you. You grow alongside them, like how your pet becomes special because you grow up with them, you know?"

"All right if Moca-chan says so…" Tsugumi finally relented, although she was not sure if she believed her own words. To try and get her to focus on something else, Tsugumi decided to move to Himari's side and ask her the question the bassist knew was coming, "How's Himari-chan's avatar looking like?"

Ran and Tomoe walked over to stand behind Himari as well when they heard Tsugumi's question and Moca had already shifted her attention to the bassist when she saw that Tsugumi had been reassured. This meant that all the spotlight was suddenly on the leader of Afterglow and Himari certainly felt the pressure. In ways more than one.

"Tomoe, stop pushing! Moca, that's my hair you just pulled!" Himari whined as she tried to wriggle her way out of being squished by her so-called friends. After a minute or so of fighting, Himari finally managed to create some space between her and the four girls standing around her, "Come on… I still haven't seen my avatar yet!"

After hearing Himari's plea to catch up to the rest of Afterglow, the other members were all about to react in their unique way. Tsugumi and Tomoe quickly dove in to try and comfort Himari, although both girls made a conscious decision to maintain physical distance with Himari after stepping inside the girl's personal space only moments ago. To reassure Himari that she would not be left behind and that her avatar was probably just still being made.

Ran, on the other hand, had swiftly used her left hand to cover Moca's mouth to prevent Moca from saying something she might regret afterward. Or that the other members of Afterglow would regret Moca have said afterward.

It was of course at that moment that Himari's laptop finished the installation process and revealed Himari's brand new avatar to her and her friends. Tsugumi was the first to point this out after which the other four stopped what they were doing to see how Himari's avatar looked like.

The last avatar of Afterglow to show up was one of a deep and vivid vermillion green color. Although it, like the other avatars the girls had seen so far, was metallic in nature, Himari's appeared to be wearing a hakama and a kosode. Like Tomoe's and Tsugumi's, Himari's avatar also had a pair of visible eyes on its otherwise featureless face with the eyes on Himari's avatar being a muted purple. And, also like Tsugumi's Yellow Peace, Himari's avatar also appeared to have metallic hair; her hairstyle would be tied in high pigtails. The only other notable feature of Himari's avatar was the ribbon tied in a bow where the avatar's right ear would be had it been human.

Both Ran and Tomoe noted that the design of the avatar would be similar to that of a shrine maiden's outfit if it was of the appropriate color. They realized the reasoning behind this when Himari read her avatar's name aloud.

"Green Maiden…" Himari read the nameplate under her avatar aloud for her friends to hear it as well. A momentary pause followed as all five girls stopped to realize what this meant before one of them finally broke it.

"I guess Moca-chan owes Hii-chan five hundred yen because Hii-chan's avatar wasn't some kind of alien witch?"

* * *

As the five members of Afterglow were about to begin playing the game now that they had finished installing it, another girl about their age was on the verge of initiating the very same game as well. Shirokane Rinko was alone in her room and had the game open in front of her, but something was still weighing on her mind.

Although this would not be the first time she would start playing a game without someone she knew to play it with, she was still feeling hesitant for two big reasons. The first was that her long-time gaming buddy had already confirmed she would not be able to play this game with her, knowing that she would not have the time to properly invest in the game.

The second issue on her mind was that she would have to play the game without being able to design her character. Rinko had several ideas in mind but they would all have to be thrown out of the window. Instead, Rinko was now staring at the avatar she would probably have to use if she wanted to play this game; an avatar that was staring right back at Rinko with featureless amber-colored eyes.

The avatar in front of Rinko was wearing an outfit that reminded Rinko of a kimono, one that was metallic-silver in color. The avatar had long black hair that was stylized after a hime cut with the bangs covering its forehead parted in two. The final thing that Rinko noticed about her avatar was the black choker around its neck.

'I guess it can't be helped… I will get strong and be ready to support Ako-chan if she ends up playing this game too,' Rinko thought to herself as she tried to motivate herself. She continued this for another half hour before she was ready to start her adventure under her new name.

"I will be… in your care… Silver Kite-san…" Rinko whispered to nobody in particular as she took a moment looking at her avatar's stats and potential skills. Much to Rinko's surprise and mild disappointment, not a lot of information was given about her avatar's skill tree which meant that Rinko needed to find out everything on her own.

Rinko then pressed the big 'start' button located on the bottom-right of her screen and watched as her computer lit up in a bright white light.

* * *

**So… normally, I would leave out the origins of the characters' avatars to allow readers to figure it all out, but I feel that because some are not as obvious as others, I should at least give readers this much.**

**I might regret this decision later, but in honor of today being the fifth anniversary of my first published fanfiction here on this site (back in the Pokemon Special fandom), the colors of everybody but Moca is directly referencing five characters of that manga. One could even argue that Moca's color is referencing a character from that manga as well, but I will confirm that her name is completely copy-pasted from her seiyuu's first main role. I will also admit that they are not the characters I would use in a crossover AU (i.e. which Bandori character would be most like which PokeSpe character), but****… they're not being used in such a crossover AU so I think it is justifiable to use the five I used.**

**The second part of their name is referencing a certain character from a different franchise that their seiyuus voice (the original seiyuu in Rinko's case). Color (schemes) had to be updated/adjusted for the sake of this story's continuity in some cases, but hopefully, the overall design and names should give enough away for those who can see the links. As a quick reminder to everyone, the in-game avatars that you know of already are Red Endymion (Mitake Ran), Black Lotus (Aoba Moca), Green Maiden (Uehara Himari), Blue Chaos (Udagawa Tomoe), Yellow Peace (Hazawa Tsugumi), and Silver Kite (Shirokane Rinko). Have fun trying to deduce them all if you want to go down that road~.**

**And that will be all for today's chapter~ I hope you all enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time~ take care~.**


	5. Enter the New World

**All right, let's see how long I will be able to keep up with this updated biweekly schedule****… put your bets in the review telling me how long you think it will last~.**

**One of the reasons for having a monthly update schedule was to allow more time for my beta reader, ****LightZephyr****, to do her beta reading magic. The writing of a chapter takes about a week/week-and-a-half, then I give the chapter to her for the beta reading process and I spend a couple of days after to edit it. That accounts for approximately eighteen days, give or take, so I've given another week-and-a-half as a safety buffer (for example, in case of something suddenly popping up or writer's block or whatever) to be able to maintain the updates.**

**On a biweekly update schedule, ****LightZephyr**** has confirmed that she won't be able to beta read every chapter so here is your warning for the potential of the quality going up and down. The chapter you are about to read just so happens to be one of the chapters where she wasn't able to beta read for me.**

**I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

With the avatars of the five girls of Afterglow made and loading into the game, Moca decided to take matters into her own hands. She was not one to easily forget a mistake her friends had made, especially if said mistake could be used as fuel to tease the friend in question.

"Please answer this for the back of the class, Hii-chan: what is the number one rule we need to follow when playing an online game like this~?" Moca asked in a sing-song voice that betrayed the amusement she had in the situation at hand. This amusement managed to reach an even higher level when Moca noticed the slight flinching of her bandmate, "Moca-chan is waiting~."

"I get it I get it, I made a mistake when we played NFO with Ako-chan, I promise I won't do it again," Himari wailed, feeling embarrassed and deflated while Moca was trying her hardest to not laugh out loud. Or, at the very least, not laugh so loud that she'd alert the rest of the people in the building.

When asked by a curious Tsugumi as to what had happened, Himari knew that she could no longer dance around the issue. So instead, the bassist decided to take a deep breath before biting the bullet, "When I first played an online game with Moca and Ako-chan I accidentally called them by their real names."

A wave of silence and understanding washed over Ran, Tomoe, and Tsugumi as they understood the story from that one sentence. Tsugumi even took it upon herself to try and reassure Himari that it would be all right and that she'd be right there to stop Himari if she would be about to say any of their names.

That was, of course, until Moca waved off their worries.

"That was indeed bad of you, Hii-chan, but that was not what Moca-chan was talking about," Moca muttered with an exaggerated sigh, making sure that her forehead was being supported with her hand. After making sure that she had her friends' full and undivided attention by peeking through the gaps in between her fingers, Moca added, "Hii-chan forgot to drop all her items and praise the great Moca-sama. Such an unforgettable and unforgivable sin…"

"I think we should start playing that game before Himari commits a murder," Ran commented at about the same time when Tomoe and Tsugumi jumped in between Moca and Himari to stop the bassist's attack. Trusting her friends to calm Himari down, Ran took on the role of distracting Moca, "What do you know about this game already?"

"Not too much," Moca admitted after a moment's hesitation with a sheepish shrug of the shoulders. Moca had been tempted to play around with Ran for a while but she knew better. While it was true that Moca had been looking forward to play the game Kuroba had handed her, Tsugumi's presence when Moca had been thinking of getting a head start had quickly dissuaded the self-proclaimed genius. Moca did not want to be the reason that the brunette felt like she was being left behind again.

Using Tsugumi as a means to escape Himari's wrath was fair game, however.

"Let's start and see what the game has to offer~!" Moca cheered, walking up to her laptop with a small skip in her steps. Without wasting another moment, Moca clicked the button in the bottom-right of the screen and watched as her laptop's screen lit up in a blinding light.

* * *

When Moca opened her eyes again she would be in for the surprise of the day. Her laptop, which she knew wasn't the strongest in the world after seeing what Ako's could do, managed to properly display and showcase the beautiful world in front of Moca. And what a beautiful world it was.

The skies above were dyed in a radiant shade of blue while specks of white Moca knew were supposed to symbolize clouds drifted over in a slow and almost-hypnotic stream across the screen. A single shining orb of light was in the middle of the sky above, the light radiating off the orb properly illuminating everything below it. What impressed Moca the most of this was that the lighting of her screen properly adjusted and adapted the moment when a particularly fluffy cloud moved in front of the sun; the lighting and contrast of the environment around Moca dulled ever so slightly and the shadows around her began to slowly fade into nothingness.

But the sky was not the only thing that had caught Moca's attention. The area that her avatar spawned in could best be described as a grassland area. The view for Moca was filled with blades of grass of varying shades of green as far as the eye could see, the only other noticeable landmark around her were the handful of trees towering above Moca's head around the field. It did not take Moca very long to realize that the grass was tall enough to reach the knees of Moca's avatar.

The way the grass seemed to move told Moca that there was a gentle, zephyr-like breeze blowing through her avatar's non-existent hair. Moca took a moment to close her eyes to try and imagine herself in her avatar's place and it almost felt as if she really was!

Moca's moment of tranquility was soon shattered when several flashes of light around her announced the arrival of her friends.

"Took you guys long enough!" Moca whined playfully when she saw the familiar faces of her friends' avatars. Judging by the lack of response Moca was getting, she knew that her friends were admiring their surroundings as well so Moca decided to do something else. Moca ended up searching through the in-game menu and settings before too long to see if she could gain an unfair advantage over her friends.

"We won't need to rely on the chat system if we are playing in the same room, but if we want to play with nobody around it might be useful to communicate," Moca explained as she motioned to the room they were in. Her friends nodded in understanding and agreement, so Moca moved on to the next point of concern, "Now we need to know what kind of a game we are playing."

"You don't know?!" Himari practically screeched as both Tomoe and Tsugumi, who were sitting on either side of Himari, visibly flinched at the sheer volume.

"I have an idea, but I need two willing volunteers to test out my theory… Chaos and Endy-sama?" Moca asked Tomoe and Ran with a hopeful glint in her eyes. Knowing what question was about to be asked of her, Moca tried to explain her reasoning, "We should all get used to calling each other by our avatars' name. The whole 'don't pull a Hii-chan' thing and all."

"That problem aside, what do you want us to do?" Tomoe asked Moca, the worry practically dripping from her words. Tomoe, much like anyone who had known Moca for more than two minutes, knew how unpredictable Moca could be more often than not. As it so happened, the five girls of Afterglow had been close friends for slightly over a decade. so Tomoe was certain that she could tell when Moca had something sinister planned. For all Tomoe knew, Moca could ask Tomoe and Ran to kiss or for them to fight to the death.

It being Moca who asked them for a favor meant that both ends of the spectrum and anything in between was not out of the question.

"Chaos, stand over here please~," Moca said as she erratically moved her avatar on the spot she wanted Tomoe to stand on, much to the redhead's visible confusion. When Tomoe had made her way to where Moca wanted her to go, Moca walked a little bit away from Tomoe and repeated the motion in the hopes that Ran received the hint.

As soon as Ran was in place a few moments later, Moca directed her attention to Tomoe once again, "Can you go to your menu in the bottom-right, pick the third option from the top and see if you can find Endy-sama's name? When you do, please click on the left button by Endy-sama's name."

While Tomoe was muttering a stream of mumbles as she tried to follow Moca's instructions, Himari attempted to get Moca to tell her what the guitarist was planning. For Himari, the one thing worse than not knowing something was when Moca knew what Himari didn't.

Moca, to her credit, remained quiet. She hadn't moved her avatar since parking Lotus beside Peace and Maiden after Moca had shown Ran where Endymion needed to stand. Even outside the game, the only movements Moca made were to try and see if Tomoe needed her help at all.

"All right, I got it!" Tomoe's victory cheer caught everybody by surprise as they had all been focused on something else. Tomoe did not seem to notice this, so she sounded unaffected by the confusion when she spoke again, "I think this means Ra— I mean, Endymion should have a notification or message pop up or something?"

With Tsugumi watching over her shoulder, Ran scanned her screen to see what Tomoe was talking about. Neither of them needed much time to try and find what they were looking for; the big window in the middle of the screen announcing the message was pretty hard to be overlooked.

"Now what?" Ran asked as soon as she pressed the confirm button, originally intending her question to be asked to the group as a whole but the look she was giving Moca told the guitarist that Ran had directed the question mainly at her. Moca, however, never even got the chance to answer the question.

A navy-blue beam of light exploded from the ground, reaching to and piercing through the clouds fluttering overhead. Before any member of Afterglow could do anything, the same light encircled the avatars of Ran and Tomoe, cutting the two of them off from the remaining three members.

As soon as it started, it was already over and nothing could be done about it. Moca, Himari, and Tsugumi were left standing outside the dome of light that was currently trapping Ran and Tomoe inside.

"Moca-chan! What's going on?" Tsugumi cried out in panic, already rushing to her laptop to see if she could find an opening in the exterior of the dome to reach her friends. Had she been in a calmer state of mind, she would have noticed that Himari was attempting the same thing she was. Tsugumi had gotten very tunnel-visioned in the heat of the moment, only wanting to help Ran and Tomoe escape, so her brain did not process what the others were doing.

Ran and Tomoe, in turn, were looking around them frantically to try and figure out what was going on. Despite being cut off from the outside world, the inside of the dome was relatively well-lit. Everything had a muted navy-blue tint to them, but aside from that both Ran and Tomoe could see what was around them without too much difficulty. The knee-length grass, the wall of light cutting them off from the outside world…

And the clock that materialized out of nowhere in front of both Ran and Tomoe. The unvoiced question as to what the clock was supposed to symbolize was answered when it began ticking down from thirty.

"As Moca-chan suspected…" Moca mumbled softly, trailing off as she took a good long look at the screens of both Ran and Tomoe. Knowing that she would be bombarded with a certain question soon, Moca decided to stay a step ahead and answer the unvoiced question for her friends, "Chaos and Endymion are in a battle to the death, one that will start once the countdown reaches zero. This game has us fight other players, and the fights can't be interrupted until one of the fighters, well... wins. Or lose, technically."

"What Moca is saying is that either one of us has to die before we can leave this place?" Tomoe thought out loud in the hopes that she managed to keep up with Moca's train of thoughts. Tomoe knew that a part of her was hoping she was mistaken, but seeing Moca nod all but confirmed to the redhead that she had to do what she had to do, "I don't like this, but let's get this over with so we can move on to the next part of the game."

"If it is the motivation you need then Moca-chan is here to provide~," Moca sang with a grin, making sure that she maintained eye contact with Ran as she made her announcement. It took Ran a split second to catch on, but before she could try and stop Moca she found a hand covering her mouth as Moca placed the final nail in Ran's coffin, "Tsugu, do you remember a few weeks ago when Tomo-chin got grounded for a week?"

"I… think so?" Tsugumi's response followed soon after, but it was clear that Tsugumi was not very confident she knew what Moca was talking about. Both Himari and Tomoe were watching Tsugumi in mild interest to see where Moca was guiding the youngest of the group while Ran could only hope and pray that she'd live to see the day's sunset. Then, as if somebody flicked the switch, it was as if Tsugumi's face lit up when she figured it all out, "Wasn't that because Ran-chan told Ako-chan wrong information when we'd finish our practice?"

Tsugumi, having realized her mistake, tried to salvage what little of the peace she could but was stopped by Moca covering her mouth as well. Without the ability to apologize for her mistake, Tsugumi could only watch as Tomoe merely blinked a few times as her brain tried to process the information she had just been given.

"I am going to enjoy this…" Tomoe muttered in a dangerously low voice, cracking her fingers before getting in position in front of her laptop and scanning her screen to see what she could do. Unfortunately for Tomoe, her avatar did not have a lot of flashy skills or moves to take advantage of because of its low level.

That did not stop Tomoe from trying to find a way to get back at Ran.

"Ah, Ran and Tomo-chin fighting, we've reached the quota for today, everybody~," Moca couldn't help but smile as she watched Ran look at her skills as well, though not without her fair share of annoyance. With her task done, Moca turned to her friends who weren't currently trapped in a one-on-one fight in-game and added, "Either of you got some popcorn or at least ten buns as we watch Ran and Tomo-chin fight for the eighth time this week?"

"Moca!"

"What? It's not like either of them can leave that fight before it ends anyway," Moca pointed out with a small shrug of her shoulders. Before Himari even had the chance to comment on this, Moca was speaking again, "We need to know what this game is about and what the rules are, right? Besides, with the tension lately between Ran and Tomo-chin they would have ended up fighting one day anyway. Would you rather they beat each other senseless and one or both end up in the hospital, or just kill each other in a game with no consequences?"

"That… fine, you win, Moca," Himari finally relented, knowing that Moca had a point. The last time their stubborn friends were at each other's throats had resulted in Tomoe receiving a black eye and Ran bedridden for the rest of that day. Himari knew that the alternative to Ran and Tomoe sorting out their differences in the game would not be an option, so she tried to change the subject to keep her mind off the issue at hand, "Shall we go grab something to eat and drink then?"

"There's a convenience store down the street I can go to get some drinks," Tsugumi thought out loud, wanting to assist and keep up with her friends. Seeing Moca and Himari nod appreciatively at the thought, Tsugumi's brain went into overdrive to try and think of something to suggest, "Moca-chan and Himari-chan can run to the bakery to get some food for us?"

"Yay for bakery~!"

"All right, we're off. Good luck, Ran, Tomoe," Himari added to her two friends who would be staying behind. She did not get much of a response from either of them, so Himari turned around and walked out of the door with Moca and Tsugumi walking a bit ahead of her.

Himari and Moca soon said their goodbyes to Tsugumi who needed to go the other way before setting their sights on to the bakery. The two girls were walking for a minute or so in silence before one of them finally said something.

"So, um… there's something we need to talk about," Himari said, eyeing her friend to try and see if she could see a reaction out of the normally unpredictable Moca. Unfortunately for Himari, this was not the case, so all that Himari could do was take a deep breath and prepare herself for the worse, "The rest of us talked about it two days ago when Moca had to go home early."

"I know, Hii-chan. Tsugu and Tomo-chin aren't the best at keeping secrets, and when Ran is as direct as she was last night it's clear something's bothering her," Moca sighed with a small smile. Himari went on to say that it wasn't meant to be a secret and that they wanted to include Moca in the discussion as soon as possible, but Moca waved off Himari's words, "It's why Moca-chan got everybody to play this. It's something else we can do together when we all move apart after we graduate in two years, right?"

"Thank you, Moca," Himari voiced her gratitude to Moca. Himari had been struggling to find a way to keep the group together should they all go their separate ways for weeks now; Moca managed to find a possible solution in two days.

'I know you have been hiding parts about yourself, not showing everything you can do… to not make us worried… but have you really grown so much since I last saw a glimpse of who my friend is?' Himari's mind was swimming with thoughts like this as she watched Moca take the lead, a noticeable skip in her steps, 'Do I… or anyone… even know the real you?'

* * *

**And that is all for today's chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**


	6. Mitake Ran vs Udagawa Tomoe

**A quick note I will put here instead of anywhere else****… there have been questions regarding whether or not ****Shining Sunlight**** will be my final multi-chapter story for this fandom. The honest answer is that I do not know, I haven't really looked that far ahead and a lot of things can pop up between now and the end of this story. As of writing this AN, Shining has a soft chapter count target that should guarantee that Shining remains ongoing for another year or so if everything goes well. But even though it is still a while until Shining will supposedly end… who knows?**

**Special thanks to ****LightZephyr**** for the beta read of this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party, nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

"_I am going to enjoy this…" Tomoe muttered in a dangerously low voice, cracking her fingers before getting in position in front of her laptop and scanning her screen to see what she could do. Unfortunately for Tomoe, her avatar did not have a lot of flashy skills or moves to take advantage of because of its low level._

_That did not stop Tomoe from trying to find a way to get back at Ran._

Tomoe's efforts were ultimately rewarded the moment she opened her inventory.

When Tomoe saw that she had a handgun available to her she thought the fight would be a short one. Based on the appearance of Ran's avatar, Tomoe figured that Ran wouldn't have the fastest character in the game. With that thought fueling her desire to finish the fight as soon as possible, Tomoe betted everything on her ability to attack from a distance and Ran's seeming lack of mobility and defensive capabilities.

Tomoe was right about the mobility part; Ran's avatar moved in a slow manner that left her open to the ranged assault Tomoe could bombard her with. The fight should have been a quick one in Tomoe's favor in the current situation…

"Why… won't… you… DIE?!"

Which was exactly why Tomoe looked on in shock as Ran's avatar scrambled back on its feet, the ninth gun wound contrasting nicely against Endymion's red body. It wasn't even that Tomoe's aim was that far off; quite the contrary, even. Tomoe managed to land eight of her nine shots around the upper part of Endymion's torso while the ninth had gone straight through Endymion's forehead.

But Endymion was miraculously still standing as if it didn't even take any damage at all.

"Don't you _want_ to escape this prison?" Tomoe hissed through gritted teeth in the hopes of convincing Ran to throw the match. A soft voice in the back of the redhead's mind asked her why she couldn't take the high ground and forfeit the fight herself, but Tomoe knew that she was much too competitive to do that.

Unfortunately for Tomoe, she wasn't the only member of Afterglow inside the dome who was born with a competitive nature.

"Why do I have to be the one to die?" Ran was quick to respond with a question of her own, expecting a rebuttal from Tomoe but receiving silence instead. Despite the words leaving her mouth, Ran knew the reason; unlike Tomoe's avatar, Ran's avatar did not seem like it packed much of a punch. The easiest way for them to escape was for Ran to let Tomoe win, but this came with two big issues.

The first was that Ran was just as competitive as Tomoe was, if not more so. Ran hated to lose, she hated to admit defeat, but more than anything she hated showing her weak sides to her friends. Even after begrudgingly accepting that it would be for the best for Tomoe to win this impromptu fight Moca forced on them, Ran was presented with the second issue.

Her avatar just would not die. Ran knew that the attacks that Chaos managed to land on Endymion were significant, perhaps even decisive; each shot managed to slice off over half of Endymion's total health points with each hit, but Endymion managed to shake those hits off. The mechanical body of Ran's avatar was clearly showing the wounds from battle, but it was still alive.

'Maybe they don't have the same bodies we do, so a hit that would hit a vital organ in our bodies would not necessarily be a life-threatening hit to them?' Ran thought to herself in an effort to figure out what was going on. She knew better than to simply assume that the game was converting every aspect of the real world perfectly; the fact that none of the avatars Ran had seen so far even resembled any of their owners had been proof enough.

Ran had quickly figured out that while Tomoe could attack from a distance, the distance was still rather limited, so Ran took a few steps back to where she was outside Tomoe's range. It was only then that Ran dared to tear her gaze from her laptop's screen to see what state Tomoe was in.

Wondering if Tomoe had managed to pick up on as much as Ran had in the redhead's blind rage, Ran decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Don't you think something is wrong?" Ran asked Tomoe in as calm a voice as she could. To Tomoe's credit, she managed to pick up on this and made a conscious effort to calm down. As Tomoe was doing this, Ran seized the opportunity to try and talk some sense into her friend, "You can attack from a distance, but it doesn't seem like I am dying anytime soon."

"Could it be something with your avatar?" Tomoe thought out loud as she glanced back at her computer screen. After a moment's hesitation, she added, "My Chaos can attack from a distance with its gun, so maybe your avatar has an ability where you can recover your health at an absurd rate? Or where you would have invulnerability to damage at all?"

"Wouldn't having such a broken effect take away from the satisfaction and enjoyment of playing this game?" Ran asked with a frown, falling silent to allow Tomoe's earlier words to swim around in her mind. Ran's momentary distraction costed her dearly as Chaos had fired another shot at Endymion. It was only pure luck that the bullet whizzed past Endymion's side rather than hit Ran's avatar in its left shoulder.

As Tomoe cursed under her breath because her tenth shot was the first to not hit its mark, Ran berated herself for giving away such an opening to Tomoe in the first place. Even if Endymion wouldn't fall over and die easily, that did not mean that Ran could afford to be unfocused.

'Tomoe doesn't look like she is willing to talk this out,' Ran thought as she sat back down in front of her laptop. Although Ran was hurt that Tomoe would betray the momentary truce they had to fire a cheap shot at Endymion, Afterglow's vocalist managed to push these feelings away in a matter of seconds. With no emotions to weigh her down, Ran surprised herself when she realized that she was smiling.

Not only was she having a surprising amount of fun already, but Ran could feel her competitive side screaming at her to stop holding back. She could let loose and clash with Tomoe without any negative consequences.

A grin that could best be described as 'Moca-like' appeared on Ran's face as Ran tried to formulate a plan on how to fight back.

'Now what can you do to help me beat Tomoe and Chaos, Endymion?'

* * *

"What did you say?!"

Moca visibly winced at the outcry of her friend. Even though Moca had expected Himari's reaction, no amount of preparation would have prepared Moca's eardrums for what they would have to endure.

Moca and Himari were on their way back from a successful trip to the bakery when Himari had yelled those four words. The two girls were both carrying a paper bag filled with a handful of a variety of buns, the bag that Moca was carrying was visibly filled with more buns than Himari's, and were just about to re-enter the Hazawa household when they ran into Tsugumi.

Himari more so than Moca.

"Sorry about that, Tsugu," Himari said sheepishly, offering a hand to her fallen friend in the process. As Himari was helping Tsugumi, Moca had taken a hold of Himari's paper bag of buns and was currently hugging both bags as if her life depended on it. Knowing Moca's love for bread, neither Himari nor Tsugumi could deny the possibility that Moca _was_ hugging both bags as if her life depended on it.

"That's okay, Himari-chan," Tsugumi said as she gave Himari a quick smile of reassurance. Himari was still looking apologetic even after this, something that did not go unnoticed by either of her friends, so Tsugumi tried to change the topic, "Let's hurry and get these to Ran-chan and Tomoe-chan, they must be hungry and thirsty after fighting in the game for so long."

"About that…" Himari trailed off with a menacing-looking glare directed at Moca, only to see that Moca had grown a surprising amount of interest in the Hazawa household's nameplate. Suppressing the urge to hit her friend for her attitude, Himari took a shuddering breath to try and calm herself down before attempting to get Moca to focus again, "Moca, are you going to explain what you just said?"

"I don't want to explain it twice, can't it wait until we're inside and Ran and Tomo-chin can listen, too?" Moca asked in return, not wasting any time to sidestep Himari and put herself in a position where Himari would need to go through Tsugumi to get to her. With her shield in place, Moca turned back to Himari and added with a triumphant grin, "You can either waste your time trying to get Moca-chan to spill her secrets, or get a move on and hear the truth~."

Even though Moca had technically given her friend a choice in the matter, she did not give a lot of time for Himari to give a response. As a matter of fact, Moca turned around the moment she had told Himari what she wanted to say and entered the Hazawa household before Himari had the chance to stop her.

The two girls who remained outside fell into a tense period of silence after Moca's departure. With Moca no longer within hearing distance for her to interrogate, Himari was finally free to try and process Moca's behavior and words without Moca breathing down her neck. Tsugumi, on the other hand, was left standing by Himari's side wondering what happened in the twenty minutes or so since she last saw her friends.

"Himari-chan and Moca-chan had this discussion going the whole trip to the bakery?" Tsugumi asked Himari, unsure what to say or how to lighten the mood. Thankfully for Tsugumi, Himari's brain took the sound of the brunette's voice as a reminder that Himari was not alone. This small reaction was all Tsugumi needed to know what to say next, "Let's hurry and join Moca-chan inside. The longer we are out here, the longer Himari-chan will have to wait to hear Moca-chan's answer."

Unable to argue with Tsugumi's line of reasoning, Himari allowed herself to be dragged inside by Tsugumi. Mentally, however, she was somewhere else entirely. More specifically, a single thought the bassist had since going to the bakery with Moca was still swimming around in her mind.

_'Do I… or anyone, really… even know the real you?'_

"Himari-chan?"

"Ah! Sorry, Tsugu, I must've zoned out there for a bit," Himari said with a sheepish grin, hoping that Tsugumi would accept Himari's excuse and drop the subject. In an effort to help Tsugumi achieve this, Himari looked around her for a possible distraction and said, "So how are Ran and Tomoe doing?"

"They are about done, it should not last long now…"

It wasn't Tsugumi who answered Himari's question, it was Moca. A Moca who was happily munching on one of the buns she had bought earlier. The bread-loving girl was quick to offer a bun to her friends before nodding her head in the direction she had walked from, "Ran and Tomo-chin are over there. If Chaos can beat Endymion, they will be free again."

"What do you mean by 'if'?" Himari had picked up on Moca's choice of words and was not about to let Moca squirm her way out of explaining it to her this time. With Tsugumi quick to follow Himari's example, Himari knew that Moca was in a losing battle.

"All right, you two got Moca-chan to talk, congratulations~," Moca sang with an exaggerated clapping motion. Moca dropped the act after only two seconds in favor of looking Himari in the eyes. Himari, in turn, took a small step back when she noticed the strong air of confidence in Moca's stance that was very unlike her usual playful confidence, "Haven't you two looked at your avatars at all since we played? Or wondered why they're all colored in one color with none of us sharing a color?"

"Now that you mention it…" Himari thought out loud as she took in what Moca was going at. It was, of course, only then that Himari remembered that she didn't do any of the things Moca had just said. Glancing at Tsugumi who was standing beside her, Himari was at least relieved to know that she wasn't the only one who was playing a few steps behind Moca, but this still left Himari with a big problem. Moca was, once again, walking in front of Himari and all that Himari could do was admit she had fallen behind, "So… do you have any idea what any of that means?"

"Just a theory, but Moca-chan is a genius so it's probably right~," Moca added the second part quickly with a triumphant smirk, one that only grew when she saw the look on Himari's face. It took Moca several seconds before she managed to stifle her laughter enough to where she was sure she would be audible again, "We already know that the avatars are pretty much unique to the player, but what if the avatars themselves hold some sort of hint to what they can do?"

"Like how Blue Chaos isn't made to be a ranged character?"

"Exactly~ as expected of our Tomo-chin~," Moca sang, seemingly unfazed by the redhead barging in on their conversation. Moca took the opportunity to throw the bun she bought for Tomoe to her friend and, without skipping a beat, added, "Does this mean that Ran and Tomo-chin figured it out~?"

"I wouldn't say that we 'figured it out' or anything… I learned that Chaos firing at Endymion wasn't working so I tried something else. Once I switched to close-range combat, Chaos did much better," Tomoe trailed off with a sheepish chuckle, not wanting to show off by saying that she had won the fight. It was still much too close for Tomoe to be comfortable with how the fight ended up; Chaos had managed to deal more damage than Endymion could negate after the two avatars switched to close-range combat, but Tomoe knew that if the fight had drawn out any longer she would have lost.

Tomoe glanced in Ran's direction and she saw that Ran had the same thought in mind. Chaos would not stand much of a chance once Endymion got stronger. All Tomoe could hope was that Chaos could keep up once everybody starts to strengthen their avatars.

The redhead then shook her head to try and get rid of these thoughts before deciding to play along with Moca, "But it sounds like Moca knows something that we don't. Care to share with the class?"

"I wonder~?" Moca tried acting innocent for a few seconds when one look from Tomoe convinced Moca she should be serious. With an exaggerated and drawn-out sigh, Moca dropped the facade and gave Tomoe the answer she wanted, "As Tomo-chin might have figured out already, Blue Chaos isn't a ranged character at all. So trying to use her as a ranged character is like trying to make Hii-chan lose weight."

"Hey!"

"In short, pretty meaningless and next to hopeless," Moca finished with a small shrug, completely ignoring Himari's outburst that interrupted her, "As Moca-chan said earlier, it was just a lucky guess. From what Ako-chin told me, players of the game Ako-chin plays built their characters to fit the role of the character. Ako-chin, for example, played a _Necromancer_ role and her avatar had been made to fit that role."

"And since we skipped the avatar creating part of the game, you just assumed the avatars were already pre-programmed for the roles they would play?" Tomoe thought out loud, trying to follow along with Moca's line of thinking. Tomoe ended up receiving a nod of confirmation from Moca soon after, but this only opened the doors for the next question that had been bothering the redhead.

"But how did you figure out my character isn't a ranged character?" Tomoe asked, seeing to her surprise that Moca did not react to the question right away. Tomoe wasn't sure if this was because Moca didn't know the answer, didn't know how to explain it to her, or was just drawing out responding to Tomoe in order to annoy her. Knowing Moca, it could have been any of those three scenarios.

"Our avatars were made uniquely for the person who is going to use them," Moca explained, probably hoping or even expecting that the single sentence would have been enough of an answer. She soon realized that this was not the case and took a moment to think of a way to properly explain it to the taller girl, before trying again, "The game made the avatars for us based on what it knows about us. In other words, if the game is accurate, the avatars should be similar to the player. They would be similar to us. And Tomo-chin isn't the type of person to sit back and watch things unfold from afar, so Blue Chaos wouldn't be the type to attack from far away, either."

"I guess you're right…" Tomoe admitted, knowing that Moca made a pretty good point. If there was one person amongst them who would jump head-first into a situation, they all knew it would have been the redhaired drummer. To save what little face she could, Tomoe tried to change the subject soon after, "Are there any other things you are keeping from us?"

"Moca-chan isn't technically 'keeping stuff' away from everyone, it was just a guess is all," Moca explained as she handed Ran a bun as well. With everybody in Afterglow properly fed, Moca turned back to Tomoe with her signature smirk, "Moca-chan bets Moca-chan can find out more about the game than Tomo-chin can~."

"I'll take you up on that challenge!" Tomoe finished off the half-eaten bun in her hand in one big bite and rushed back to her laptop to try and get a head start. Tomoe would soon be followed by Moca calling out how Tomoe was being unfair and that Tomoe's longer legs gave her an advantage that Moca could only dream of.

This left Himari, Ran, and Tsugumi alone as they watched their two friends rush off. All of them had the same thought in mind, but none of them wanted to be the person to voice the thought in question. As a result, the three remaining girls ended up eating their buns in a prolonged period of silence.

A silence that eventually pushed one of them beyond their breaking points.

"You've played more than Tsugu and I have, what do you think of it so far?" Himari asked Ran in between two bites. Her voice seemed to catch Ran by surprise, the vocalist appearing to have been lost in her thoughts up until this point, so Himari asked her question again.

"I think so, though it depends on what else we learn about it," Ran explained after a moment to contemplate her answer. She then looked like she was about to say something else, but decided to save it for another time. Instead, Ran took her food with her and walked off in the direction Tomoe and Moca had run off to moments ago without waiting for either Himari or Tsugumi.

Himari and Tsugumi looked at each other to find a form of reassurance from the other. A sign that what they were about to do was what they should be doing in the first place.

The two girls nodded almost at the same time and followed their friends' lead. After all, if this was the path they were meant to walk on then they could not afford to fall too much behind.

'If Moca-chan and Tomoe-chan remain as determined as they were just now, then I have to work hard, too!' Tsugumi thought to herself. Himari, who was walking right by the brunette's side, had a very similar thought swimming around in her mind as she rejoined the game once again.

* * *

**Okay, I will admit: I originally gave the colors of the avatars mainly as that easter egg/reference kind of thing to the first fandom I wrote and published for. However, as ****LightZephyr**** pointed out while we discussed how this chapter should go, it turns out that the colors I gave them fitted the avatars' playing style like how I envisioned them (I will probably have to be a bit creative with Tsugumi's and Rinko's, but hey… that's only part of the challenge). Long story short, the franchise that helped inspire the game-setting of ****Shining Sunlight**** also incorporated avatars with specific colors. And the colors were always strongly correlated to the avatar's supposed playing style. I knew about this… I just didn't originally assign their respective colors with that rule in mind.**

**Anyways, that's all for today's chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**


	7. The First Encounter

**We've been following the Afterglow-side of the story for a while now (something I think is justifiable as Afterglow is my favorite band of the franchise by a decent margin), but there's another side of the story we can delve into. Let's see how we've left off, shall we~?**

**I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

"_I will be__… in your care… Silver Kite-san…" Rinko whispered to nobody in particular as she took a moment looking at her avatar's stats and potential skills. Much to Rinko's surprise and mild disappointment, not a lot of information was given about her avatar's skill tree which meant that Rinko needed to find out everything on her own._

_Rinko then pressed the big 'start' button located on the bottom-right of her screen and watched as her computer lit up in a bright white light._

'What kind of game will this be?' Rinko thought as she waited for her computer to finish loading the game. Rinko was confident her computer would be able to handle the game as it survived running NFO regularly, but depending on the game's internet demands Rinko might be in trouble. Not that the Shirokane household had bad internet or anything, but the router was as far away from Rinko's room as it possibly could be. This meant that, much to her disappointment, the signal strength was the weakest where it mattered most to Rinko.

Despite Rinko's continuous whining over the years, her parents hadn't complied with Rinko's request to install a rerouter in the house. Rinko had a feeling her parents were afraid she'd spent even more time alone in her room, something even Rinko could not deny she would do. The only bright side to Rinko's situation was that she knew she could play NFO with minimal internet problems, so it should be good enough for this game.

Before installing the game, Rinko had done her homework to try and learn as much as she could. She knew she wouldn't be playing it with Ako so there was no fear of her knowing too much about the game and leaving Ako in the dark. With this knowledge in mind, Rinko had searched as much as she could to prepare for the days to come.

The only problem was the fact that there was not a lot of information out there for Rinko to take advantage of. Only the bare minimum that the game would involve fighting mobs and other players and the nature of the avatars.

The avatar creation process in particular was what interested Rinko the most and what ultimately made her give the game a chance. A game that would create a custom avatar that was unique to the player based on what the game knew about the player? Rinko had to push the worrying thoughts as to _how_ the game learned about the player, and once she did she could feel herself brim with excitement. The idea that Silver Kite was made specifically for her interested Rinko a lot, so much so that Rinko might be more interested in learning about her avatar than the game itself.

It was also for this reason that Rinko was already feeling a certain level of a bond with Silver Kite despite only knowing her avatar for a couple of minutes at most. Rinko was ready to play the game and learn more about Silver Kite, and with the loading screen finally disappearing she knew that nothing could stop her—.

"Rin-chan! Dinner is ready, mama is expecting Rin-chan at the table in five minutes!"

Rinko suppressed the urge to groan in annoyance; she knew that her mother didn't do anything wrong and there was no point in getting mad at her. That being said, Rinko's irritation was audible even to herself when she called she would be down soon.

'And right when I was about to start, too…' Rinko thought to herself as she stared at her computer's screen, wanting nothing more than to isolate herself in her room and play her games all day long. Of course, this was an accurate description for Shirokane Rinko on a daily basis, but this feeling was always just a bit stronger when she found a new game to play.

Memories of the last time she tried to defy her parents' wishes to play NFO for a few more hours started to resurface. Rinko did not want a repeat of those dark days, so there was only one path left for her to take.

Letting out the breath she didn't know she was holding, Rinko accepted the fact that she wouldn't be able to play her game right away. She turned off her monitor, assuming she would be able to play right after a quick dinner, and headed downstairs.

* * *

'There really should be a rule… against guests arriving unannounced…'

Rinko had been in for a big surprise, and one that she would find all too unpleasant: her parents weren't the only people at the dinner table waiting for her. Mr. Shirokane was in an animated discussion with an old friend of his, confirming Rinko's suspicions that there was an unannounced guest. If nothing else, this at least answered the question as to who that foreign voice belonged to that Rinko heard when she was in the hallway.

To make matters worse, Rinko's mother kept pestering the poor keyboardist throughout dinner over menial issues, from schoolwork to Rinko's progress with her piano. All Rinko could do was grit her teeth and hope her short answers would not be a reason for her mother to dig deeper. The only thing that kept Rinko from losing her composure was the fact that she was looking forward to the reward she would get if she got through this. And, no matter how much her parents pampered her, Rinko knew that she had to stay on their good side if she wanted to have a chance of playing her new game.

What should have been only half an hour quickly turned to two hours, but Rinko was finally able to drag herself up the stairs and into the safety of her room. Her sweet, glorious room where nobody could bother her and she could enjoy her new game in—

"What is it _now_?" Rinko all but groaned out. At this point, she was about ready to start pulling her hair out in frustration if it wasn't for the fact that Rinko had spent years growing it out. Not to mention that if Rinko were to pull out or otherwise cut her hair, she would be the only member of her band with short hair. Rinko was already shivering at the mere thought of standing out that much.

Rinko had been so deep in her thoughts that she almost forgot she was being called. The fifth ring of her phone managed to snap Rinko out of her train of thoughts and urged her to scramble to reach her phone. Already drained from the extended dinner, Rinko knew she couldn't afford to talk over the phone for very long. Rinko had even been at the point of hanging up immediately. but she changed her mind the moment she read the name on the screen.

"H-Hello? Ako-chan?" Rinko asked the moment she held her phone to her ear. Roselia's keyboardist had no idea what to make of this situation; Ako rarely called her out of the blue, Rinko's aversion to phone calls was a well-known fact to the other members of Roselia. The surprise guest she had to entertain only moments ago was probably not helping Rinko's mental capabilities out very much, if at all.

Rinko was so pre-occupied with her thoughts that she almost missed Ako speaking up and answering the very question that Rinko was struggling with. Rinko was almost too embarrassed to admit her error to her best friend, but she also knew that she had to say something. Not only had Ako been cheering Rinko on to be more confident, but if anyone would be able to pick up if something was wrong with Rinko it would be Ako. Or Lisa, but the bond between Ako and Rinko was something that everybody was aware of.

"Sorry, Ako-chan. Could you… please… say that… again?" Despite her earlier conviction, Rinko couldn't help herself; her voice grew softer with each word to the point it was barely above a whisper by the end of the question. Rinko was relieved to hear that Ako had heard her question, but at the same time, Rinko was left to wonder how Ako could hear her in the first place.

"_Ako said that Ako was worried about you, Rinrin!"_ Ako's voice called out over the phone, making Rinko's breath hitch in her throat in the process. Before Rinko could calm herself down, she could already hear Ako talk again, _"And not just Ako! Lisa-nee and Sayo-san have both asked Ako to ask Rinrin how you're doing! Onee-chan even told Ako to tell Rinrin that everybody in Afterglow is worried, too!"_

'Everyone… even Afterglow…' Rinko took a shaky breath, grabbed her water bottle, and took a quick gulp of water before Ako could hear her break down. Feeling refreshed and motivated after her drink, Rinko was about to reassure her closest friend that she was all right when she realized that Ako did not mention a certain name. Before she could stop herself, she let her curiosity guide her, "What about… Yukina-san?"

"_A-Anyway, so there is this new event announced in NFO for next week, will Rinrin be able to play it with Ako?"_ Ako tried to hurriedly change the topic, something that Rinko picked up on very quickly. Rinko could even see Ako's flustered face as she attempted to think of something on the spot to try and distract Rinko with. This mental image was enough to lift Rinko's mood back up and put a smile on her face.

Even though Ako's attempt to distract Rinko was as good of a confirmation as Rinko was going to get out of the eccentric drummer. Rinko wouldn't say that and dampen Ako's mood, though; Rinko knew her best friend was only trying to help and she more than appreciated the effort.

"I… will try," Rinko said after a moment of hesitation. She was already looking forward to playing games with her best friend, but at the same time, there was another game calling her name. A game that was still open on her computer, the temptation simply too strong for Rinko to resist, "I'm sorry, Ako-chan… I have to… go now. I will see you… at tomorrow's practice?"

"_Okay, take care Rinrin!"_ Ako said before hanging up the call, not even giving Rinko a chance to properly respond to Ako. This might have been for the best as Rinko had plopped down on her back and was suddenly very fascinated by her bedroom's ceiling.

'I need to improve… to get better… so I don't worry everybody,' Rinko thought to herself, moving her right hand in front of her face and watching the blurred outline of her hand as it turned into a clenched fist.

This was the time Rinko tried to go over a mental list of things she could do, only to scratch them off the same list mere seconds later. Whether it was too ambitious, beyond Rinko's scope, involved talking with too many strangers, or a combination of above, Rinko always found a reason why she couldn't do it. This continued for the next few minutes where Rinko would be trying to give herself a pep talk and figuring out a path to her goal.

Only for that path to reveal itself in the form of her computer's monitor lighting up.

"Ah, Silver Kite-san!" Rinko cried out when she realized she still needed to play her game. With a renewed sense of energy, Rinko scrambled to her feet, almost tripped over her legs, and hurried over to her computer to see that the game was still open. Not only that, her avatar, Silver Kite, was staring back at Rinko with its amber-colored eyes.

Rinko's focus naturally gravitated to those featureless eyes of her avatar; and while they did not give away much information, Rinko immediately knew what her avatar was trying to tell her. Almost as if the two shared a connection that transcended the barrier between the two dimensions.

"That can't be right," Rinko shook her head and even slapped her cheeks a few times, all to wake herself from the trance-like state she was in. The avatar talking to her? Rinko might have liked games, but even Rinko knew that an in-game avatar could do no such thing.

'Anyway, get into the game, figure out the rules, and see what I can do today,' Rinko thought to herself as she sat in front of her computer again. Pushing the other thoughts out of her head as well as she could, Rinko tried to reassure and motivate herself. It was a new game, a new opportunity, and a new chance to let loose and have fun with one of the few things that still gave her happiness in life. With a smile, Rinko sat in front of her computer waiting for the loading screen to go away, 'I got through the early stages of NFO, how hard can this game get?'

* * *

'Get away get away get away get away!'

As if to prove to Rinko that the day could get worse, she was quick to learn that NFO wasn't the only broken game that she played. The moment that Silver Kite spawned into the game, Rinko found herself in a quiet, savannah-like area with orange-colored spikes of grass all around her. The only landmark that Rinko could see in her surroundings was a single oak tree towering above her head a few meters to her south.

Unfortunately for Rinko, the area was quiet, but not deserted. A crimson-colored bull had been grazing on the patches of grass when the light that announced Rinko's arrival must have alerted it. Whether it was territorial or just easily angered Rinko did not know, all she knew was that she was being chased by the beast before she even had the chance to appreciate the scenery.

"Silver Kite-san, what can you do to help me?" Rinko thought out loud as the bull's next charge narrowly missed her. Rinko tried to rake her brain for ideas, but the earlier emotionally-draining time spent at the dinner table had bled her dry mentally. The only thing that she was able to think of was the fact that she wouldn't lose a significant amount of experience should she fall here. A not too reassuring thought for the keyboardist of Roselia.

Rinko wasn't about to roll over and die, however. She could already hear her fallen opponents in NFO laugh at her should she die mere moments after starting a game.

'If I am going down, I will at least tell Ako-chan I died fighting,' Rinko thought to herself as she decided on a course of action. She moved Kite so her avatar would sidestep the bull's charge and settled on standing her ground. Rinko had been attacked enough times already that she felt she knew her opponent's attack pattern: charge full steam ahead.

And Rinko was planning on using that to her advantage.

"Just wait until the last moment again… and… now!" Rinko called out when she saw the opening that she needed. With practiced precision and dexterity that came from years of playing games, Rinko guided Kite to dodge to the left at the last second. But Rinko's counterattack was far from over; with the bull flying forward with no way to stop its momentum, Rinko went on the offensive and landed two punches to the bull's side.

The effects of Rinko's attack were immediate. Rinko wasn't expecting to do much more than be a mild inconvenience for her opponent at best as she had just started playing the game. The reality of the situation was completely different: the bull was sent flying, bounced a handful of times on the ground, and then skidded to a halt approximately twenty meters away. Rinko did not see her opponent scramble back to its feet again, but she did receive a pop-up message notifying her of her victory.

"No drops… that's weird," Rinko thought out loud as she went over her rewards for her win. She was still shocked at how easily she managed to beat her opponent and couldn't think of the reason she could one-hit kill the beast… that was until Rinko opened her stats page again and found the answer, "Bonus damage… against demonic opponents… and bulls… would that be enough… to explain… what just happened?"

Unable to figure out the answer to her question by just standing around, Rinko decided to try and find the nearest settlement and ask around there. She was bound to run into NPCs or even other players she could talk to there and figure out her next course of action.

'Other players…' Rinko shuddered at the mere thought of needing to interact with _more_ people after spending so much energy entertaining the surprise guest earlier. That being said, Rinko was already interested in this game, and if it takes interacting with other players to get better, she would make that sacrifice in a heartbeat. Or several heartbeats as Rinko could already feel her heart rate start to skyrocket.

"Calm down… deep breaths…" Rinko told herself as she tried to regulate her breathing. In… out… in… out… it took her a few seconds, but eventually, she managed to calm her heart rate down to a more natural rate, "All right… let's go to the next town… Kite-san…"

This, however, led to the next problem Rinko had to face: she was in the middle of nowhere and had no idea which direction she even had to go to. Should she walk to her right or her left? The only thing Rinko knew for certain was that she could not stay where she was. The mobs were sure to respawn, potentially in larger numbers, and Rinko was not looking forward to another encounter. Let alone having to fight multiple of those beasts.

'Let's see… I was attacked from the left, so going left means I can run into more of those things,' Rinko thought as she weighed her options, already shuddering at the idea of running into a horde of enemies she wouldn't be able to beat easily. If she were using her characters in other games she played, Rinko might have been more confident. Silver Kite, however, was a brand new character that Rinko knew little about, so she didn't want to take that risk yet. No, going left wasn't an option for her, which meant the only other way she could go was…

'If I go right, I either run into stronger enemies or a safe town…' Rinko finished her train of thought, already knowing what she wanted to do. Or, rather, what she knew she had to do; it wasn't something she was thrilled to do, but it was better than the alternative. With a small sigh, Rinko steeled herself and turned to Silver Kite as if hoping her avatar could give her a response, "Let's get going."

Rinko and Kite kept going to the right while wading through the sea of grass, not looking back once in the hopes of preventing herself from second-guessing her decision. This proved effective as Rinko managed to keep going, each step that Kite took to the right reassuring Rinko that she had made the right choice. A right choice, at least: her assumption that the bull's spawn point had been to her left seemed to be true as she hadn't run into more beasts since she started moving.

But ten minutes had already passed since she left the spot she got attacked and Rinko had still been unable to find a town she could ask around. Her menus weren't of much use either, only providing Rinko the bare minimum to make Silver Kite move the way Rinko wanted her avatar to move.

And that was not the only problem that Rinko had to deal with…

Had Rinko waited a few minutes or turned around to look back she would have seen the bright flash of light that lit up the area. With her attention focused on the right where she wanted to go, Rinko was unaware that she was no longer alone…

* * *

**And that is all for today's chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, please tell me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**


	8. All or Nothing

**All right, continuing right from where we left off. I do want to give a special shoutout to ****Namitaa776**** for helping out with a specific scene in this chapter. And, of course, a thank you also goes to ****LightZephyr**** for the beta read as always!**

**I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

_'If I go right, I either run into stronger enemies or a safe town…' Rinko finished her train of thought, already knowing what she wanted to do. Or, rather, what she knew she had to do; it wasn't something she was thrilled to do, but it was better than the alternative. With a small sigh, Rinko steeled herself and turned to Silver Kite as if hoping her avatar could give her a response, "Let's get going."_

There was no going around it: Rinko was starting to get bored. As surprising as her start to the game was, the tension quickly dissipated to make room for… not much of anything. The area Rinko found herself in, while beautiful in its own way, had been the same since she spawned into the game. And despite how much she enjoyed the scenery around her, Rinko was starting to get tired of seeing the same patches of grass again and again.

If Rinko didn't know any better, she would have started thinking she was walking around in circles. But that wouldn't be possible, right? She had been moving in a straight line since leaving the spot she spawned in, so there was no way Rinko was not going anywhere.

The area she was in just had to be a really big one and Silver Kite was just taking up more time than Rinko was used to. Rinko couldn't really complain about Kite's movement speed considering her avatar's low level. Quite the opposite, really; Rinko was shocked to learn that Kite was already seemingly almost as fast as Rinko's other characters.

What _was_ bothering Rinko was the fact that Kite lacked any skills to make moving through the map not a waste of time. Unlike what Rinko was used to in other games, she had no ability to increase her movement speed or even a lack of an ability to teleport small distances. As a result, Rinko knew she would be stuck trotting along at her pace for a long time to come.

Even with trying to reassure herself that everything was fine, Rinko was still feeling worried. Knowing it would eat away at her if she didn't figure out the answer now, Rinko took a deep breath and satiated her curiosity and worries by looking around. She remembered an oak tree in the area she spawned in, so if she really _was_ walking around in circles she should see that tree again.

Rinko made Kite slowly turn around on the spot so she could scan the horizon. So far, Rinko hadn't seen the familiar sight of the tree which was reassuring to her; she was just being paranoid again. With a small sigh, Rinko was ready to continue moving when something caught her eye.

"Wait a minute…" Rinko muttered as she edged closer to the familiar sight. Rinko would stop when she was sure she wasn't seeing things. She wasn't, but she _did_ feel her heart drop to the pit of her stomach. Rinko had been feeling queasy about something, like a small voice in the back of her mind telling her something was wrong.

Rinko's suspicions were confirmed when she saw a familiar oak tree. Not just any oak tree, either.

'This is where I started…' Rinko thought to herself, trying to make sense of the situation. She was sure she had been moving in a straight line, so how could she have made such a mistake?

A flash of light was all the warning Rinko would get to avoid the other player. When the dustcloud had settled Rinko saw her assailant: a tall and lean yellow-colored avatar. A piece of cloth was used to cover the avatar's face except for its mossy green eyes, but the avatar's design was not what was worrying Rinko.

What was unnerving Rinko the most was that this avatar was in a fighting stance, ready to launch another attack at Silver Kite.

'But why haven't they?' Rinko frowned in thought while trying to think of a reason. She wouldn't be given the chance to figure it out as the game chose that moment to notify Rinko of something. Upon closer inspection, Rinko saw that she was asked to enable voice chat of all things, 'Voice…? Am I ready for that yet…?'

As Rinko was debating with herself, wondering if she could handle enabling voice chat and talking with random strangers, her mind gravitated towards her best friend. Ako would be proud of her if she could do this, and Rinko didn't want to hold Ako back. This has also been the main reason she ran for student council presidency, so what was the point if she couldn't be brave when it mattered?

Gulping down any residue fear and hesitation, Rinko checked her headset to make sure everything was working like it should and enabled voice chat.

"_Finally, that took you forever to accept. Let me guess: you are a new player?"_

Rinko flinched hearing the other player, not only because of what they said but also the voice itself. The voice sounded very crackly and full of static, but not as if there was a bad connection. With no explanation she could think of, Rinko wondered if it was the game's doing to hide the identity of their players.

'The more I learn about this game, the more I want to play it…' Rinko smiled as she stared at her monitor in awe for a few seconds. One second too long in the other player's eyes.

"_Hello?! Are you still there?"_

"Yes, um… sorry," Rinko apologized to the other player while simultaneously trying to keep her heart rate from skyrocketing. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Rinko reminded herself of her earlier resolve. She had been in search of other players for a while to get pointers on the game. Rinko would never forgive herself if she didn't take advantage of the situation now that one was handed to her on a figurative silver platter, "You're right… I am new… so as my senior in this game… can you please give me… some answers?"

"_Interesting_…" the player controlling the yellow-colored avatar muttered before falling silent. Rinko could only hope that the other player was contemplating their options. Finally, after what felt like hours to Rinko but could have been only a handful of seconds, the other player spoke again, _"Unfortunately, I don't have a reason to help you. But if you can impress me in a fight you might change my mind."_

"A… fight?" Rinko echoed in disbelief, her brain already trying to figure out the other player's intention. Two seconds later, Rinko understood the implications of the challenge, "But you are… much more experienced…"

"_Relax, I will not go all out against you. As you said, I have been playing this game for a while now so I would destroy you in about three seconds if I were serious. Maybe more depending on how good you are at dodging,"_ the other player said, their tone seemingly softening up when they realized Rinko's worries. They continued a muttered stream of words that were inaudible to Rinko before a notification showed up in the middle of Rinko's screen. As Rinko was reading the notification and processing the wording in the message, the other player spoke again, _"Click 'accept' and we can start that fight. It should be pretty hard to miss."_

Had she been in a clearer state of mind, Rinko might have felt offended by the other player's phrasing. Tonight, however, Rinko was much too focused on formulating a strategy. She had been playing for barely half an hour and she was already dragged into a PvP fight against a much more experienced player.

No matter how hard she tried to ignore it, the same question kept popping up in her mind: what kind of a fighter will the other player be?

'Kite-san seems like a close-range fighter, so as long as they aren't a ranged-type, I should be fine,' Rinko thought to herself as she pressed the 'accept' button to initiate the fight. The notification then changed to a clock hovering two-meter above the ground, counting down to what Rinko could only assume was the start of the fight.

But Rinko had other things to worry about than the clock. A nagging voice in the back of Rinko's mind kept telling her that her opponent _would_ be a ranged-type to complete Rinko's bad luck that day. The voice's consistent yammering made it very hard for Rinko to tune out this worry in favor of focusing on what she was getting into.

It was also at this time that Rinko realized she was muttering things under her breath. In fear of being an annoyance, Rinko muted her mic so the other player wouldn't be able to hear her. Rinko then took a couple of deep breaths, closed her eyes to tune out her surroundings, and prepared herself for what was to come.

'Kite-san's only attacks are their fists and those daggers…' Rinko was raking her brain for a solution to the battle and figuring out a strategy for survival. Her plan came crashing down as her worries piled up again, forcing Rinko to focus on her breathing before anything else. Only after she felt like she wasn't going to faint did she begrudgingly accept that there was only one thing she could do.

When Rinko opened her eyes again, the countdown had already reached the single digits. Rinko didn't fancy her chances to find another player to teach her the ways of the game, so Rinko knew what she had to do.

Rinko had to fight the stronger player in front of her. And she had to _win_.

"Three… two… one… go!" Rinko called out, directing Silver Kite to dash forward. No matter what kind of fighter her opponent was, Rinko knew that she had to get in close to try and deal as much damage as she possibly could. Moving in close had the added benefit of limiting her opponent's movements if they were a ranged-type fighter and attempted to attack Rinko from a distance.

But as Kite sprinted forward, Rinko's screen lit up in a light so bright it blinded Roselia's keyboardist. Despite every fiber of her being telling her otherwise, Rinko turned away from her screen with a wince. She was defenseless, and if the other player could take advantage of Rinko's lowered guard…

When Rinko opened her eyes again, she saw that a thick mist had formed between her and her opponent, obscuring the other player from Rinko's field of vision. With her sight limited, Rinko didn't dare move from the spot she was standing on; as Rinko didn't know where her opponent might attack, she couldn't move without risking Kite running straight into an otherwise avoidable blast.

'Why use a move that blinds both players? Unless…' Rinko inhaled sharply when she not only realized what her opponent was doing but also that she recognized this attack pattern. Her opponent was playing very similarly to how Rinko's fire wizard did in Neo Fantasy Online.

And now, knowing what the other player was trying to do, Rinko felt a surge of confidence. The difference in level and experience between the two players meant that Rinko would likely be unable to win.

'But if I play this right I might have a chance,' Rinko thought to herself before turning to Silver Kite. Rinko knew that it all came down to whether or not Kite could do what Rinko needed her avatar to do; whether she won or lost, it came down to this, 'I am counting on you, Kite-san.'

Rinko calmed her breathing and closed her eyes. Having used this strategy against countless opponents in the past made her confident she could break it; the tactic revolved around making the target panic and make a misplay in the confusion. A misplay that would not go unpunished by the other player if Rinko were to fall for the trap. If Rinko could stay calm and play like she always did, she knew she could do it.

As a result of Rinko standing still, the fight had screeched to a halt as well. A heavy, almost eerie silence hung in the air that would have unnerved Rinko any other day. But this was Rinko's playground, the thing that she could do, and Rinko's patience and calmness of mind were rewarded a few seconds later.

A beam of light struck the ground where Silver Kite would have been had Rinko not dove to the side at the last second. The blast grazed past Kite's right side, causing negligible damage to Rinko's avatar. Instead of damaging Kite, the blast would result in a sizeable hole in the ground.

A small sigh of relief escaped Rinko's lips when she saw she had escaped taking the first hit, but Rinko knew that she wasn't out of the woods yet. If the attack was that terrifying when it missed its target, Rinko didn't want to imagine how much damage it would inflict if Kite were to get hit by that directly. It took all of her willpower to do so, but Rinko managed to maintain her composure in the face of such an attack. The last thing she wanted was to lose this chance because of a mistake.

'If I am going down, I am at least going down with a fight,' Rinko thought to herself while wiping the sweat off her brow. Despite her facade, she knew how close she just avoided disaster. At the same time, however, Rinko knew the battle was far from over… she had been cornered many times before, this was just another day for Rinko to prove herself, 'I did it before, I can do it again… right, Kite-san?'

After taking a moment to consider her options, Rinko unsheathed one of Kite's daggers and threw it through the mist. The earlier blast made attacking the point of origin a very tempting thing to do, but Rinko knew better. If the other player used a similar strategy as Rinko did in the past, then Rinko's opponent would have moved already to avoid an attack returned at them.

Rinko's gamble proved to be successful, and she was rewarded with the mist slowly thinning before disappearing completely. As Rinko had suspected, her opponent moved after launching the blast at Rinko. And based on how close Rinko's dagger struck the avatar's left foot, Rinko knew she had read her opponent well.

Seeing the distance between the two avatars made Rinko second-guess her decision to not dash through the mist for a split second. Had Rinko kept going, she might have been able to land a solid hit or two, but at what cost? Rinko knew that she had made the right move to stop; she couldn't have risked such a careless, reckless, Ako-like move when she knew next to nothing about her opponent. Especially not if doing so could open Kite up to an easy counterattack.

'Knowing the skill they have to almost land a blast through that mist… they were probably ready with a trap if I had gone through that mist blindly,' Rinko thought while at the same time trying to seize in the current situation she was in. Both players were exposed now, but with Kite's speed, Rinko was sure she could go on the offensive.

If Rinko could find a big enough opening to do so.

"_Impressive… you not only avoided my attack but managed to break my illusion as well_," the other player's voice caught Rinko by surprise. In Rinko's past experiences, her opponents wouldn't try and communicate with her in the middle of the fight, Rinko's onslaught was usually enough of a deterrent. But now that the predator has turned prey, Rinko couldn't help but wonder what the other player was thinking.

"Is the gap between us… really that big?" Rinko muttered as her mind came to the only conclusion it could reach: the other player was strong enough to be able to _afford_ talking with their opponents in the middle of a fight. If Rinko's assumption was right, then—.

"_Tell me: how were you able to avoid taking any damage just now?"_

The other player's voice shook Rinko out of her train of thoughts and forced her to think of an answer on the spot. Unfortunately for Rinko, she'd soon find out that her short period of good fortune was running out. Rinko was halfway through her response before remembering she had muted herself earlier, forcing the girl to start over.

"I used to… fight like that in an old game," Rinko began her explanation, recalling her precious wizard's playstyle. Rinko had already opened her mouth to continue her answer when she realized it might have come off insulting or making fun of the other player, two things Rinko didn't want to do. So instead, Rinko took a few seconds to find the right words before speaking again, "And once I knew… I could predict where your attack… was coming from. And predict… your movement after attacking."

"And that wasn't all I could do…" Rinko trailed off with a small smile, her gaze shifting to the bottom of her screen. Had Rinko been able to focus on her opponent more she would have heard the other player gasp. Instead, Rinko left herself wide open in favor of activating the only skill of Silver Kite she knew how to use: Dark Sight.

The skill Rinko used was one that made Silver Kite conceal itself in the shadows, temporarily preventing other players from seeing or attacking Rinko's avatar. In exchange for the invulnerability the skill bestowed, Rinko would not be able to launch an attack of her own while the skill was active. Also, the skill only lasted three seconds, but Rinko knew that three seconds was more than enough.

Taking full advantage of her opponent's confusion, Rinko dashed forward as fast as Silver Kite's legs could carry her. As she moved, Rinko saw her chance for victory and took it; the second Rinko's invulnerability had ended she was already wielding her dagger and pressing it against her opponent's throat from behind. The thought of blood trickling down the other player's throat caused a shiver to run down Rinko's spine, but still, Rinko persevered.

Thankfully for Rinko, the avatars did not have any blood to be spilled in battle.

"I win," Rinko announced, panting slightly. She wasn't confident in her strategy to overthrow her opponent, fearing the other player's experience and level might be too much for Rinko to overcome. But with no other way she could have thought of on the spot, Rinko felt an unusual emotion boiling up inside her.

She felt proud of herself.

"_Not bad… You not only avoided my attack but managed to corner me and hold me at knifepoint. Not bad at all for a beginner… "_ the other player said softly. Rinko managed to hear their words regardless, making her feel even prouder for what she had accomplished. Despite how her opponent phrased it, Rinko knew that she was just complimented.

This pride Rinko felt disappeared the moment her opponent's avatar did as well, and in its place came shock and confusion.

"What just—oh no!" Rinko's eyes widened when she realized her mistake a second too late. She and Kite spun around, but by that point, the battle was already decided.

"_But not good enough to beat me. You are not the only one who can disappear into the shadows like that,"_ Rinko could almost see the other player's smirk as they held a sword in their hand, the tip of the weapon pressing lightly against Kite's throat.

It was over. Rinko had lost.

Rinko felt devastated. She had dedicated her entire strategy on the only path of victory she could think of, but that was still not enough. The only solace for Rinko was that she knew she had been fighting an uphill battle from the beginning. Once the level and experience gap was cleared, Rinko knew she would have a chance at victory.

This thought succeeded in somewhat comforting Rinko, although the bitter aftertaste of defeat would remain in the back of her mouth for a while.

"_You might have lost the fight, but you proved yourself to me," _the other player's words caused Rinko to look up. In the heat of battle and her focus to try and win, Rinko had almost forgotten why they were fighting in the first place. Rinko could almost cheer when the other player spoke again, _"I will help you get started in this game, to the best of my abilities, anyway. That being said, I never quite got your name?"_

"Ah, right, I'm sorry," Rinko realized that the other player was right. The two were so focused on their little spar that they never introduced themselves to the other, "My name is Silver Kite."

"_Kite-san then,"_ the other player muttered to themselves as Rinko was waiting for a response. Rinko wanted to know the other player's name as well, but she didn't want to be bothered and ask them outright. What if it inconvenienced them and they changed their mind about helping Rinko with the game?

Rinko's worries came to a grinding halt when the other player sent Rinko a friend request. The act was not something that Rinko was anticipating, so she was all flustered by the time the other player finally introduced themselves to Rinko.

"_My name is Amber Moon. It is nice to officially meet you, Kite-san."_

* * *

**And that's all for today! Like Kuroba from chapter 3, Amber Moon (and Amber Moon's owner) are not an OC. What they _are_, however, is a last-minute addition to the story… Anyway, that little trivia aside… I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**

**Also, a quick note: because this month has five Saturdays instead of the usual four, I will be uploading the next chapter not on the third Saturday (15/08) but the fourth Saturday (22/08). That, admittedly, isn't the real reason for the delay, but the delay will still happen so there is the announcement. Thank you for your understanding and patience in advance.**


	9. The Struggle

**Ah, it feels good to go back to this story again. I know that I originally planned this fic to "only" be updated once a month, but still****…**** with the way ****Ties That Connect**** took up more time than I thought it would, the gap **_**feels **_**longer to me****…**

**On a related note, I want to thank ****LightZephyr**** for posting the notification that this chapter would potentially be delayed. Unforeseen, unpredictable, and unavoidable technical difficulties popped up that could have prevented me from updating this week. Thankfully, this wouldn't be the case as I am sure you have figured it out already, but… the technical and internet difficulties I had could have lasted long enough to warrant a delay…**

**I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

Three days had passed since Moca had dragged her friends into playing their new game together. Since then, the five girls had been spending as much time in the virtual world as they possibly could. This time was used to explore the areas accessible to them in the early game, to learn everything they could about the inner workings of the game, and to try and grind up the strength and levels to improve.

One of the many things the group of friends managed to learn was that the game had a feature to form in-game groups. Something that, after being asked about this by her sister, Ako had referred to as 'parties'. The benefits of this far outweighed the hassle it took to explain to Tomoe how to join the party; any experience points they earned would be shared with every other member of the party.

A very welcome discovery for Tsugumi and Himari especially, both girls having had difficulties holding their ground in the past. Even more so after they learned of the gap between them and the other three members of Afterglow in terms of dealing damage. But being in the same party during their sessions wouldn't reduce the risk Peace and Maiden faced fighting the enemies that Endymion, Lotus, and Chaos could handle easily.

The way the members of Afterglow chose to mitigate this glaring weakness was to pair Peace and Maiden up with one of the other three avatars. Doing so reduced the risk that either Tsugumi or Himari could be blindsided by an enemy while playing and be powerless to properly defend themselves. Since their party meant the experience each of them would get was shared between the members anyway, there was little to no downside to this strategy.

"Chaos and Peace are in position," Tomoe announced, receiving an affirmative noise from the brown-haired keyboardist shortly after. Blue Chaos and Yellow Peace were currently hiding in the trees on top of a hill, peering through the curtain of leaves and branches. Or at least Tsugumi was as Tomoe was too distracted to focus on what was happening on her screen.

Tomoe heard Himari mention something similar about Ran and herself as the redhead was adjusting her mic's sensitivity, which only left one person unaccounted for.

"Approaching the target, ready to engage," Moca's words were rather muffled and distant as if she was distracted. Fortunately for Moca, her friends had known her long enough to be able to pick up what Moca was saying. With the worry of not being understood by her friends no longer an issue, Moca could focus on the bigger issue at hand, "Chaos, Endymion, cover me. Here I go!"

From her position up in the canopy of trees, Tomoe had a great view to watch her friend leap out of her hiding spot and pounce on her prey: an unsuspecting wyvern. Tomoe would almost feel bad for the creature, knowing what Moca was capable of, but this feeling was quickly replaced by something else.

The resonating sound of metal blades clashing with the wyvern's talons filled the area. Had it not been for the voice call the five childhood friends were in they would have heard the wyvern's battle cry better. Instead, Ran, Himari, Tomoe, and Tsugumi were blessed with listening to Moca's grunts and huffs of annoyance as Lotus danced with the taller, airborne creature.

But Moca's grunts weren't what was annoying the girls who were watching on the sidelines. Or, rather, it wasn't what annoyed them the most.

All enemies in the game had a specific point on their bodies that they were weakest at as Ran found out the hard way two days ago. A critical point that would deal a greater amount of damage relative to a hit anywhere else on the target's body. And this wasn't the first time they fought this particular kind of wyverns, either.

"Lotus-chan! The wyvern's left wing! That is its weak point!" Tsugumi cried out to try and remind Moca where she should land her blows. Unfortunately for the brunette, Moca either didn't hear her or chose not to listen to her advice.

"Moca isn't listening, is she?" Himari asked nobody in particular, the worry seeping through her voice as she remembered the last time the five of them ran into a herd of wyverns. It hadn't ended very well for Himari and Maiden after being focused on by a group attack and Himari worried for her friend's safety, "What should we do?"

"Endymion! Heads up!" Tomoe shouted as she jumped off the branch she was standing on. Falling on the ground from her position would have resulted in a significant amount of damage to Chaos, but Tomoe knew that she had nothing to fear. Right before she would have touched the ground, Endymion popped out of the bushes and launched Chaos into the air again with a single blast of air.

"That Air Bullet is all I can do, I can't attack from a distance without risking hitting either you or Lotus accidentally," Ran's voice said through Tomoe's headset, followed by words of understanding and encouragement from both Himari and Tsugumi. Tomoe, on the other hand, had other worries on her mind to try and reassure her friend.

'Ran and Endymion are only getting stronger and stronger… having mastered this new Air Bullet skill this much in just half a day…' Tomoe thought to herself as Chaos flew through the air. Unfortunately for Tomoe, that was all the time she could afford to think about this as she was nearing the wyvern, "Lotus, to your left!"

The moment Tomoe announced her arrival to Moca, she had already crashed head-first into the creature her friend had been trying to fight all this time. The wyvern had not been expecting Tomoe's surprise attack so the redhead got the first hit in for free.

Tomoe knew that she had to act fast before the wyvern could recover if she wanted to help Moca and Lotus.

"This is for not rolling over for Lotus to kill you!" Tomoe shouted, her fingers flying over the keys of her keyboard to activate her newest skill: Mystic Thorns. A close-ranged skill that made Chaos punch the ground in front of its body. A fraction of a second later, five whip-like roots sprung up from the ground, changed their trajectory, and wrapped themselves around the wyvern's legs.

Seeing her attack worked perfectly caused a grin to form on Tomoe's mouth, though she managed to suppress the urge to gloat. There was a time and place for everything and then and there was neither. Instead, Tomoe turned to try and cheer on Lotus.

…only to see that Lotus wasn't where Tomoe remembered her friend being.

Moca saw the opening Tomoe provided for her and didn't waste any time. With her right hand morphing into the shape of an obsidian-colored blade, Lotus barrelled past Chaos and stabbed the wyvern in between its eyes. An ear-splitting screech escaped the creature's mouth before its eyes rolled back into its head and its now-limp body fell on the ground.

The notification window popping up to inform Tomoe of the party's victory marked the end of the battle. A few points stronger after defeating the wyvern, the path to level three was starting to get closer and closer for the redhead.

"You did it, Lotus-chan!" Tsugumi's voice punched Tomoe's train of thoughts and brought it to an abrupt halt. Endymion, Maiden, and Peace had joined up with Chaos and Lotus by the time the redhead had recovered, "That makes thirty-seven today! That's incredible!"

"Thank you," Moca said curtly, enough of an acknowledgment for her friends to say nothing of it but stiffly enough where Tomoe couldn't help but wonder what was wrong. The fact that Moca fell silent soon after didn't help ease their worries as the silence could have meant a variety of different things. From muting her microphone to munch on a bunch of snacks without subjecting her friends' ears to the sound to scanning the menus in search of an answer.

Having known Moca as long as they had, the other members of Afterglow knew that everything was a valid possibility when it came to Moca.

Both Himari and Tsugumi attempted to break the silence a couple of times, feeling especially weighed down by Moca's lack of noise. Neither of them managed to do a very good job at it, however, and by the time Himari was about to make her third attempt, it wasn't necessary anymore.

Black Lotus had shifted its stance, retracting the obsidian-colored blades it had to reveal metal, humanoid hands. This change was accompanied by a dragged-out sigh from Moca, something that put her friends at unease.

When Moca sighed, one of two things tended to happen. Either Moca knew something her friends didn't and was annoyed by the gap in knowledge or somebody made a big mistake somewhere down the road. Neither of which were very favorable options for Moca's friends.

'Was jumping in without waiting for Moca to tell me that she needed my help the wrong thing to do?' Tomoe bit her lower lip in thought, feeling uneasier as the seconds ticked by. It was only now that this thought drifted around her mind that Tomoe started to worry. Although not as strongly so as either Ran or Tomoe, Moca wasn't one to like having her weak points emphasized by someone else.

Not being known for having the best self-control amongst the members of Afterglow, Tomoe's front cracked only seconds later.

The only thing saving Tomoe from utter embarrassment was Moca choosing that moment to start talking again.

"I think that's enough for today, I'm logging off. See you all tomorrow at school," Moca announced, the distance separating her from her friends doing nothing to hide the exhaustion in her voice. After waiting long enough to receive proper goodbyes from her friends, Moca's avatar shimmered in a bright light before disappearing altogether.

Moca's departure opened the door for an old friend of Afterglow's members to show up again: tense and awkward silence.

"So… what should we do now that Lotus-chan has gone to—?" Tsugumi began but abruptly fell silently before she could finish her question. Thankfully, Himari, Ran, and Tomoe didn't have to wait long for Tsugumi to not only talk again but explain the momentary pause, "Sorry, but I have to go now, too. Something about a party being held downstairs and father needs the extra hands."

After saying their goodbyes to the brunette, Himari, Ran, and Tomoe watched Peace follow in Lotus' footsteps. The departure of Moca and Tsugumi meant that there was little reason for the remaining girls to continue playing. Himari, Ran, and Tomoe unanimously agreed that this was the end of their daily gaming session.

Himari was quick to log off and call it a night, but Tomoe was hesitating for a while. The redhead's hesitation didn't go unnoticed for long as Ran was quick to point it out. The bigger problem for Tomoe, however, was trying to find the right words to share her burden with Ran.

"It's just… don't you think something's weird with Moca?" Tomoe finally settled on trying to be as direct as possible when she remembered who she was talking to in the first place. Seeing the lack of rebuttal from Ran as an excuse to pour her heart out to her friend, Tomoe decided to elaborate on what she had just said, "Being competitive is one thing, but it's almost like she's someone else entirely when we're here."

"I have noticed that, too," Ran's words of confirmation somewhat reassured Tomoe, knowing that it wasn't just Tomoe's paranoia and overprotectiveness running rampage again. On the other hand, Tomoe knew that Ran had more to say… and Tomoe was right.

"But let's be real here: if one of us wants to succeed at trying to hide something from the rest of us, it's probably Moca," Ran continued, not skipping a beat to share what was on her mind. Unfortunately, Ran was at a loss for words after having told Tomoe what her opinion was. This led to a few tense and heavy seconds of silence before Ran found a way to break it, "All we can do is the same as always. To trust Moca and support her when she allows us to get closer."

"You're right, so let's both get some rest in case we need to help Moca out tomorrow," Tomoe agreed with Ran, silently happy that she wasn't the one who suggested that course of action. Trying to stay true to her word, Tomoe logged off almost immediately after saying that.

And rested her forehead against her computer monitor with her eyes closed.

'You've really grown, Ran,' Tomoe thought to herself with a small, almost melancholic smile on her face. Seeing her friend mature right in front of her eyes made Tomoe proud of her friend's growth. At the same time, however, this reminder also served to shout a specific question in Tomoe's mind.

Just how far had Tomoe fallen behind on Ran without the drummer realizing it?

* * *

Somewhere not too far away from the Udagawa household, another girl was spending her time resting against the warm monitor as well. But unlike Tomoe, this girl did so for a completely different reason.

"That was close…" Moca sighed softly, relishing the privacy of her room to lower her guard, if only slightly. Moca only barely avoided making what could have been the biggest mistake in her life so far… and while she was relieved that she succeeded, the fact that she was only a few seconds away from breaking apart was nothing if not worrying.

As Moca did this, the earlier memory of her fight with the wyvern was playing again in her mind. And with it came the feeling of anguish and desperation Moca had felt with it.

Moca knew that she didn't have the right to complain after dragging her friends into the game using the excuse that it would be another bond to keep them together. That being said, Moca's annoyance and frustrations were building up.

The unique way the game made their avatars was a huge talking point for the five girls. Each of them wondered what the significance of this process was and how they could learn more about it. Not only because the members of Afterglow wanted to grow as players, but also to grow more attached to their respective avatars.

And the biggest question they asked themselves since they started playing was what the significance of their avatars' colors was. Was it an aesthetic thing the game did to try and make the virtual world more colorful? Were the avatars just randomly assigned a color and were painted in their namesake color? Or did it have some deeper, somewhat hidden gameplay mechanic?

It turned out that it was the third option all along, as the impromptu match between Ran and Tomoe had proven. After the two of them finished the fight, the five childhood friends noticed an item in their inventories that told them some basic mechanics. A beginner's manual or, as Moca so eloquently put it, baby buoy.

Most of what the guide told the players were the basic things, but amongst these mechanics was the relationship between the players and their avatars. The game matched the player's playstyle the instant their avatar was created and painted the avatar in the matching color.

As it turned out, each color held a hidden meaning that opened up the path to unlocking the full potential of the avatars. Tsugumi even theorized that the avatar's color completely defined the avatar's strengths and weaknesses. And the best news was that this manual explained the color meanings for the avatars of all members of Afterglow.

All but one of them.

"Get a grip, Moca-chan," Moca let out a short and dry chuckle, leaning back and reclining in her chair. A few deep breaths later, Moca was staring at the ceiling of her room and recalling the earlier events, "It's just a game, no need to get so worked up about this. If you do, you'll only worry everyone else. And that isn't what Aoba Moca-chan is about, now is she?"

"I had a feeling it was something like that."

Moca almost gave herself whiplash wit how fast she turned her head in the direction of the voice. And even after she saw who was standing there it took Moca a few more seconds to make sure she wasn't seeing things, "But—I—you—how?"

"Why do you look so surprised? You were the one who told me I could come to you whenever something was bothering me," Ran said, her voice betraying the exhaustion the vocalist was feeling… something that, even in the state she was in, did not go unnoticed by Moca. Ran's forehead was even glistening with small droplets of sweat, racing down the girl's cheeks and leaving a shiny trail in the process.

But Ran didn't pay much attention to either her exhaustion or her best friend's sputtering. Instead, Ran walked to the pile of clothes on Moca's chair, hesitated for a split second, dug through it, and threw a jacket in Moca's face.

"What…?" Moca asked as she looked up from the article of clothing now resting in her lap to look at Ran. In all her years of knowing the only child of the Mitake household, Moca had rarely seen Ran as straightforward and direct as she was today, "Why?"

"Put that on, we need to go somewhere," Ran commanded, pulling out her phone from her pocket and walking out the door. Before she stepped past the boundary, Ran paused and looked back at Moca, "Now are you coming with me or not?"

"All right, you win… I'm curious," Moca admitted with a small smile, putting on the jacket as she stood up. If the only way for Moca to learn what Ran was planning was to play along with Ran's game then play along she would, "So where are we going?"

"I thought the great genius Moca-sama would be able to figure it out by now," Ran said with a small smirk, silently relishing the fact she could toy with Moca the way Moca always toyed with everybody around her. Not that Ran would ever say that out loud. Ran almost missed the mischievous twinkle in Moca's eyes when she said that and, deciding to give her friend a hint, added with a sigh, "It's a place you know all too well."

* * *

**And that is all for today! Yeah, a little bit of a shorter chapter****… but at the same time, the last couple of chapters have been longer than I originally planned a typical Shining Sunlight chapter to be. That, and with ****Ties That Connect**** I did technically write more than I usually do this month… Anyways, ****I**** hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**


	10. Birth of the Lotus

**I've mentioned this story was not going to be thoroughly outlined like ****Scarlet Sunlight**** was.** **That said, as the writer of this story, I already feel like this story****… fluctuates, in a way. Therefore, in an effort to reduce this variance, ****I feel like I should plan it out accordingly enough. Unfortunately, t****his means that starting chapter eleven I will have chapters planned out several entries in advance.**

**On a related note, at this point I think I can safely say that by the time this story is completed it will have stolen the crown of my longest BanG Dream fanfic from ****Scarlet Sunlight****… maybe…**

**I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape, or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

"_I thought the great genius Moca-sama would be able to figure it out by now," Ran said with a small smirk, silently relishing the fact she could toy with Moca the way Moca always toyed with everybody around her. Not that Ran would ever say that out loud. Ran almost missed the mischievous twinkle in Moca's eyes when she said that and, deciding to give her friend a hint, added with a sigh, "It's a place you know all too well."_

"You weren't kidding about Moca-chan knowing this place well… but why did you bring me here, anyway?" Moca asked her friend the moment the familiar playground came into sight.

The playground Ran had brought Moca to was the same one that the members of Afterglow used to play at in their younger years. Even in their younger years the five of them thought the playground was on the smaller size of playgrounds around. The only things there were a set of three swings, two slides, and a meter-long monkey bars dangling children over a pit of sand. In addition, the facilities themselves weren't very tall, either. Moca felt like she would comfortably touch the top of the swing without much effort.

But it was _their_ playground. It was the playground closest to their houses, and with the small facilities proved the perfect place to play. And play there they did; Moca couldn't begin to imagine how many hours a week she spent trying to reach higher than Tomoe on the swings.

This wasn't the first time Moca had tried to get a clear and coherent answer from Ran since leaving the Aoba household. Unfortunately for Moca, Ran had been surprisingly stubborn in staying quiet. So quiet that the vocalist didn't even respond to Moca's question as they entered the playground.

Instead of acknowledging Moca's questions, Ran kept walking at a brisk pace until she reached the swings. Once there, Ran seemed to struggle to decide what to do for a moment before sitting on one of the swings. Unfortunately, as she was a teenager now, the only way for Ran to sit on this swing comfortably was to stretch her legs. With the creaking of the metal chains holding her up and the light, zephyr-like breeze blowing through her hair, Ran decided that this was as comfortable as she would get.

Ran didn't show any sign that she was even aware of Moca's presence once the vocalist was on the swing. The slow, rhythmic back-and-forth motion of the swing coupled with the cool air brushing against her cheeks was enough to keep Ran quiet. But not because she was actively ignoring her best friend…

Seeing Ran's actions, Moca decided to mirror them by sitting on the swing by Ran's side. On more than one occasion it seemed like Moca was on the verge of breaking the silence. Somehow, the guitarist managed to keep quiet and watched the clouds crawl around in the early-evening sky.

After what felt like hours since arriving at the playground, Ran took a deep breath and steeled herself for what was to come. What she had brought upon herself.

"You're not being honest. Not to yourself or to any of us," Ran's voice was barely above a whisper as she said those words. The irony in her being the one to say that did not go over Ran's head, but she decided to push this feeling to the back of her mind for now. She had other, much bigger problems to deal with than being a hypocrite, "So tell me what's going on. You'll break us apart if you keep going like this."

"Speaking from experience, huh, Ran?" Moca grumbled in annoyance. Ran couldn't tell whether Moca meant for Ran to hear her or if Moca just spoke louder than she wanted to. Whatever Moca's intention, Ran had to hide her flinching from Moca, masking it by staring at the moon in the sky. Thankfully for Ran, Moca didn't seem to notice. Instead, Moca was considering Ran's words carefully before finally accepting that Ran had a point, "All right, you got me. Moca-chan will properly apologize to the others tomorrow."

"Now let's go back inside, it's starting to get cold here and Moca-chan is hungry," Moca began, already standing up from her position on the swing. After stretching her arms above her head, smiling contently at the sound her shoulders made, Moca turned to face Ran and offered the vocalist her hand, "Ran?"

But Ran made no move to accept the hand in front of her face. As a matter of fact, Ran showed no sign that she even registered Moca had stood up, to begin with. It was only after Moca had retracted her hand that Ran's body moved.

"Fair warning before I say something I might regret: my patience is wearing thin," Ran muttered under her breath, her hands trembled in their effort to hold the metallic chains holding her up. After taking a deep breath, Ran looked up and glared at her friend, "You're avoiding my question, Aoba Moca."

The combination of the look Ran was giving her and the tone the vocalist used to address her by her full name left Moca physically winded. The stinging sensation she felt in her face was akin to being slapped, and for once Moca was at a loss for words. What _could _she say in response to Ran's blunt but not inaccurate accusation?

Only one road was available for Moca to take.

"Moca-chan really can't hide anything from Ran, huh?" although phrased as a question, Moca's tone made it come off as a statement, instead. Ran, who wasn't used to seeing this new side of Moca, needed a few moments to properly process what Moca had said. In this period, Moca remained silent and surprisingly stoic, resulting in a period of silence between the two of them. The two friends continued staring at one another until Ran broke the silence.

"About as much as I can hide things from you," Ran admitted with a defeated smile, deciding it would not hurt to give Moca's ego a bit of a boost now. Moca laughed at Ran's comment before taking her place back on the swing, "So… ready to talk yet?"

"I guess… Moca-chan was really happy when we found that baby buoy a few days ago," Moca began after a few tense seconds of silence. The memory of how poorly the members of Afterglow survived in the game before the manual's discovery resulted in a chuckle from Moca, "Tomo-chin and Hii-chan weren't doing that well, and Tsugu was too flustered to be of much use, either. And then the baby buoy gave us everything we needed to know…"

"You're still upset we never learned the significance of Lotus' color, aren't you?" although phrased as a question, Ran already knew what Moca's response would be like. What Ran didn't expect was how quickly Moca's head began bopping up and down. Momentarily distracted by this realization, Ran took a moment to think of the right words to say next, "Then… we should find out as soon as possible."

"What are you talking about, Ran?" Moca asked her friend, trying to see if Ran was serious. When Moca couldn't find a sign of deception, she took an exaggerated sigh before looking up at the skies above, "Where's the fun in getting a shortcut like that? Growing from the insufferable and harsh mud after heavy rainfall, the Lotus shall bloom with patience and in peace. Or something like that, right?"

It took Ran exactly two seconds before she realized what Moca was saying. As realization dawned on the sole daughter of the Mitake household, her friend was staring at her with a sheepish grin.

"You've done your homework," Ran noted in surprise and mild disbelief. The admission came as much as a shock for Moca as it did for Ran. Ran just happened to be the first of the two to recover, "But are you sure you don't feel bad about falling behind to everyone else?"

"Of course I am. I'm no Tsugu, but everyone in Afterglow wants the same thing: we want to stay who we are forever. And falling behind everybody else frustrates us as we become nothing more than a burden," Moca began with a small smile, no longer worried about choosing her words carefully. Trusting Ran to not make a fool of Moca in front of their friends like Moca would have had their positions been reversed, Moca continued, "But… there has to be a reason why Lotus is the odd one out and why there was no information on her color."

"There is obviously a reason…" Moca trailed off as she considered the possibilities. All four of Moca's friends had avatars whose colors were not only well-defined but also explained in the beginner's manual. Colors that locked the four players in a very specific playing style to maximize on their avatar's strengths.

'Everybody but Moca-chan… so why…?' Moca thought to herself, slowly blocking off her senses to focus on her thoughts. Knowing that she needed every last bit of her mental strength to figure out what made Lotus' color so unique from the other avatars Moca had seen so far.

"Ah!"

"Figured something out?" Ran asked, noticing the change in Moca's posture immediately. Although not nearly as observant as her friends were, Ran managed to pick up a trick or two over the years they have been together. Amongst these was the ability to see when Moca had figured something out.

"Perhaps, but it's still just a theory right now. Though having said that, that does remind Moca-chan…" Moca trailed off with a familiar glint in her eyes. A glint that Ran recognized only all too well.

Unfortunately for Ran, her reaction time was just a bit too slow to avoid Moca grabbing on to her jacket. Ran only attempted to break free for a few seconds before turning slack, allowing Moca to pull her off the swing.

"Ran came all this way to Moca-chan to help Moca-chan, right?" Moca asked Ran the moment the two girls saw eye-to-eye again. Ran, still out of it after being pulled so quickly, could only bob her head in response, "Perfect, then we're testing it out. And Moca-chan needs Ran's help."

"How can I help?" Ran asked slowly, the uncertainty the vocalist felt seeping into her voice. While she wanted to help Moca, Moca's sudden declaration had caught Ran by surprise. It almost felt like Ran was reading the book that was Aoba Moca, but in doing so was missing a handful of pages in the middle.

"Oh, Moca-chan needs Endymion more than Ran. But I suppose I need Ran as well then," Moca added the last sentence after a momentary pause for effect, a smirk dancing on her lips as she relished the reaction she received from Ran. Moca's smile faltered soon after, but before Ran could ask her what was wrong, Moca was already speaking again, "Thank you… I needed this."

"Don't mention it," Ran muttered softly, but just loud enough for Moca to still be able to hear her. Having hoped that Moca would have carried the conversation from there, Ran was chagrined to find out that was not the case, "If that's all, then we should probably head back now. Test your theory with Endymion and then get some rest before tomorrow."

"Ran can go ahead and head home first. My home is closer, so Ran will need the head-start," Moca explained with a nonchalant shrug. Ran saw no fault in Moca's logic, so she bid Moca farewell and left the playground.

In contrast to her words, Moca did not immediately head home. Instead, Moca inhaled the cool evening air to rejuvenate herself while feeling her stress wash away as she exhaled. With a calmer and clearer mind, she left the swings and shuffled over to where the smaller of the two slides was.

Seeing the slide brought back a wave of memories for Moca, but she managed to push these thoughts to the back of her mind. She wasn't here to reminisce, or at least she didn't want to reminisce so quickly.

As soon as Moca was standing beside the slide she fully realized how small the playground was. A decade ago when she was about to enter elementary school, Moca thought the slide to be… not gigantic by any means, but still a respectable height to play with. It even took some coaxing from Moca and Tomoe before Himari was willing to climb the slide for the first time. Now that she was a senior high school student, Moca was taller than the slide. Not by a significant margin, but taller nonetheless.

Against her better judgment, Moca did not spend more time looking at the slide than what was absolutely necessary. Instead, she knelt by the slide's side and placed her hand against one of the pillars supporting the slide. Peeking up right above her fingertips were the messily inscribed names of Moca and her friends.

Moca remembered that day as if it were yesterday and, as soon as the guitarist closed her eyes, could see the events of that day play out in her mind. Tsugumi's parents were considering moving a few cities away, which would have meant their time together as a group of five was limited. Himari managed to pull that information from a hysterical Tsugumi bawling her eyes out. But neither Himari nor any of their other friends knew what they could do to ease the brunette's worries.

That was until Ran had suggested trying to mark their names somewhere, leaving physical proof of their bond. An idea that quickly gained popularity among the little group. That was, of course, until Moca took matters into her own hands.

'Tsugu ended up staying here, and we've been inseparable since,' Moca thought to herself with a smile. As she allowed herself to drift off into her memories, Moca used her fingertips to trace over the characters carved into the metal, 'Red, green, blue, yellow… and it took me this long to realize where the black comes in. I've really been blind to the truth all this time, haven't I? I just hope everyone can forgive me for this.'

Not wanting to come home to an angered Ran for making the vocalist wait too long, Moca gathered her strength. She tore her gaze away from the playground, stood up, and headed back home.

'Moca-chan has a theory to test. And for the sake of Afterglow, Moca-chan cannot fail!'

* * *

"There we go!" Moca announced, beaming at the sight shown on her screen. The guitarist's feelings of satisfaction distracted Moca from the reaction of her friend. Ran, who was watching over Lotus' shoulder from Endymion's perspective, was completely speechless.

After meeting up with Ran once again, this time in the virtual world, the two girls had to settle a dispute real quick. Despite her earlier declaration that she wanted to help Moca, Ran was already showing signs of fatigue. As a result, the vocalist wanted to finish aiding Moca in testing her theory and go to bed soon after.

Moca, on the other hand, did not want to reveal her findings to Ran in their usual training grounds. According to Moca, it would be too dangerous, and Moca wanted to find a barren, deserted area instead to minimize the amount of damage she could do to the terrain.

The two girls were arguing over which opinion held the most merit for a few minutes before Ran finally relented. Although Ran's exhaustion won her a consolation price: it convinced Moca to not move too far away.

Lotus and Endymion spent five minutes relocating to the edge of the desert. And, mere seconds since their arrival, they had already left their mark on the area. Or Lotus had, at the very least.

A deep gash decorated the ground, courtesy of Moca and Lotus.

"I think that means I had the right idea after all," Moca grinned as Lotus' blades faded back to their original obsidian black color. Almost instinctually, Moca turned to Ran and added, "What do you think, Endymion?"

"How are you… the same Lotus who had trouble defeating one wyvern earlier?" Ran wondered out loud, throwing caution and formalities out the window. The bewilderment and amazement Ran felt seeing what her best friend was now capable of was leaving her speechless. For a few seconds, at least, "How did you figure it out?"

"It was… difficult," Moca admitted, happy that Ran could not see the sheepish smile on Moca's face. Knowing that Ran would be persistent enough to continue digging until she received a proper answer put Moca in an awkward position. On the one hand, Moca wanted to share her findings with her friends and hear them praise her for it.

On the other hand, Moca held a strong weapon in the form of knowledge that the other members of Afterglow lacked.

"I know what you are thinking, Moca, and it won't work," Ran's voice warned Moca, dragging the guitarist away from her thoughts. Moca had a feeling she knew what Ran was going to say next, and Moca's predictions were confirmed soon after, "If you know something that propels you far enough ahead from everybody else… I don't think I need to tell you how badly Tsugumi or even Tomoe will start to push themselves to try and catch up to you."

"I know I know, Endymion is right… again," Moca added the last bit reluctantly with an exaggerated, drawn-out sigh. Despite the tone that she used, Moca knew that Ran was right. And, not wanting to be responsible for Tsugumi to be admitted to the hospital again, Moca knew what she needed to do, "That baby buoy was the start of it. It had information on the colors of everybody else, and some colors we haven't seen yet. It didn't tell us what Lotus was strong in, but in a way… it kind of did."

"The truth about Black Lotus," Moca trailed off, staring at her avatar's featureless face and smiling at what she saw. These past three days had Moca see herself fall to trying to catch up to all her friends. But now that she was starting to learn how to properly use her avatar she could barely contain her excitement.

"You'll never believe it, Ran~!"

* * *

**And… yeah, I am going to cut the chapter off right here. I know I know, cliffhanger and all, but I have to make people want to look forward to the next chapter, right?**

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**


	11. Solo Wings

**First of all, thank you for your patience. As I mentioned on my Tumblr, I really needed to take a bit of a break a few days after the last chapter went up due to some real-life issues. Everything should be fine now, but I will be slowing down this story from its twice-a-month schedule. Going twice-a-month is too much for me to keep up in this state, and going once-a-month will be much too slow, so****…**** let's go for once every three weeks and see how things go from there. Depending on how it goes we'll adjust the schedule accordingly.**

**Second of all, for the second year in a row****… I admit I did not plan for this, I admit this was not scheduled like this or anything for this purpose… but considering what day of the year it is: happy birthday, Shirokane Rinko!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party, nor do I, in any way, shape, or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

_"There is a beginner manual in your inventory that should answer most of your questions," Amber Moon began, and Rinko took the opportunity to look through her items. True to Moon's words, Rinko saw the manual that the more experienced player was talking about. Before Rinko could open the manual and start reading its contents, however, Moon's voice was blasting through Rinko's headphones again._

_"But you are not a beginner when it comes to games, so a lot of what that manual has to say is likely to be redundant. You have already shown that you know how to move around and activate your skills in a combat situation, after all. If there is anything more specific you want to know about, I will do my best to answer them."_

_After thanking Moon for their willingness to support her, Rinko took her time reading through the manual despite the veteran player's warning. Sure enough, Rinko quickly learned that Moon was right: the majority of the manual was written to help the absolute beginners get started in the game. At this point, Rinko did not think studying how to use a healing potion or open her menu would be very helpful._

_There was one thing the manual told Rinko that quickly caught her eye, however._

_"Moon-san? Can you tell me more about the avatar's colors?" Rinko asked, moving the manual to the side of her screen so it would not obstruct her view of the rest of the world, "It does not help Silver Kite very well."_

_"Yes, the manual only helps players whose avatars are red, blue, green, yellow, or purple. Fortunately for me, Amber Moon falls under the yellow category. Unfortunately for you, Silver Kite falls outside any of the five I just mentioned," Amber Moon explained, and Rinko, despite knowing that Moon would not be able to see her, bobbed her head in understanding, "Studying the strengths and weaknesses of the other colors will not help you understand Silver Kite, but it is still imperative you do so. It will give you an advantage over them should you be forced to engage an avatar of that color in battle, giving you the knowledge of their weaknesses while yours are not as obvious."_

_Rinko voiced her understanding, realizing that Moon had a point in that regard. At the same time, Rinko couldn't help but notice that Moon chose to ignore the fact that Moon had dragged Rinko into a fight with an avatar of a well-explained color only minutes ago._

_"I will start with yellow-colored avatars. As a yellow-colored avatar myself, I know the most about them," Moon explained, motioning towards their avatar as the words reached Rinko's ears, "Yellow-colored avatars are well-known for their strength in indirect attacks, mainly in the forms of illusions. Therefore, the general player views us as nothing more than a supportive archetype, but that does not mean that we cannot attack other players."_

_"The two most common offensive colors here in Lilac Blaze are red and blue," Moon continued without skipping a beat, "Red avatars pride themselves in their ability to attack from long-range, further than any other color can. Blue avatars, on the other hand, are strong in close-range battles."_

_"Purple, being in the middle of red and blue in the color spectrum, have strengths in both close-range and long-range battles, making them particularly annoying to deal with," Moon paused for a moment, Rinko assuming to catch their breath, before they picked up where they left off, "Thankfully for every other color, purple-colored avatars pay for their high offensive levels with nonexistent defensive capabilities. Even a newly-created avatar can deal a significant amount of damage to the most defensively-built, high-leveled purple-colored avatars."_

_"And finally, we have the green-colored avatars, who have effectively nonexistent offensive firepower in exchange for durability and survivability. Dealing a significant amount of damage to these avatars is a challenge in and of itself," Moon finished their explanation with a soft-but-still-audible grunt. The game's voice changer doing little to prevent Rinko from hearing the disdain and annoyance in Moon's voice._

_Rinko made a quick mental note to not talk about or bring up green-colored avatars around Moon in the foreseeable future._

_"Then there are two more colors, or lack thereof in one case depending on one's definition of what it means to be a color: black and white," Moon wrapped up their explanation with a soft sigh, "There are not that many avatars of either color, but from what I have seen… white colors seem to be focused on cleansing debuffs and healing their allies. Black colors, on the other hand, are high-speed agility-based avatars, either increasing their own speed or decreasing their opponent's."_

_"I should also probably say that while these rules hold in place, for the most part, it does not mean that an avatar is landlocked in only one fighting style," Moon warned Rinko, though based on the shift in Moon's tone Rinko wondered who Moon was actually directing this warning at, "It is not uncommon to see players try a different fighting style to branch out and try to gain an advantage. Do not be surprised to see a red-colored avatar move in close or a blue-colored avatar trying to attack from far away. As a matter of fact, for yellow, green, and white-colored avatars we are forced to do this because our strengths do not lie in offensive skills, to begin with."_

_"What about Silver Kite?" Rinko asked after taking in all the knowledge Moon had just dumped on her. When she didn't receive a response right away, Rinko tried to elaborate, "I mean… I understand learning about the other colors is important… but shouldn't I also learn about myself?"_

_"To be perfectly honest with you, there is a reason why you are unable to find your avatar's color in the manual," Moon began her explanation after a momentary pause, a pause Rinko assumed was used to think of the right words to say, "Silver Kite… your existence in this game is a unique one."_

_"W-What do you mean, Moon-san?" Rinko blurted out as soon as she processed what Moon had just told her. Swallowing back the fear that creeped up out of her throat, Rinko pushed herself to voice her biggest concern, "Does that mean I am… bad?"_

_"No, nothing like that; quite the opposite, actually," Moon replied immediately after Rinko asked her the question. Before Rinko could ask Moon what the more experienced player meant, the answer was already given to her, "Silver Kite is one of only a handful of other avatars who are metal-colored."_

_"…Excuse me?"_

_"Instead of being a color whose entire features are pre-determined by the game, metal-colored avatars like Silver Kite will have their properties determined based on the metal they are based on," Moon explained in a much gentler tone, having picked up on Rinko's fears and choosing to reassure the newer player. After taking a small pause, Moon picked up where they left off, "In other words, knowing what silver's properties are will be what determines how well you can use this character."_

_"So all I need is to memorize silver's properties…" Rinko repeated what she had just been told, more to make sure that she had heard Moon correctly. Unfortunately for Rinko, she was speaking just a little too loud for her words to only reach her eyes._

_"That is correct. I have already pulled up the information on silver's properties in advance," Moon's voice blasting through Rinko's headset almost caused the keyboardist to scream in surprise. Rinko managed to keep her voice from leaving her throat and, as she scrambled up from the floor, Rinko was extremely grateful that Lilac Blaze did not have a video call function._

_"Silver… Silver… this says that the metal is very ductile and malleable, with very high values for both thermal and electrical conductivity… that might be a problem," Moon muttered as Rinko went through her chemistry notes to make sure she understood the terms Moon used. This turned to be an unnecessary precaution on Rinko's side as Moon talked again soon after._

_"You have a resistance to piercing, slashing, and any heat-based attacks," Moon explained, and Rinko, despite knowing that Moon would not be able to see her, bopped her head in understanding, "But this comes at the cost of high vulnerability to electricity; I do not know how much this game adjusts the vulnerability based on the real-world properties of the metal, but if it does then you might be even weaker to electricity than Copper Wolf."_

_"That does not sound too bad," Rinko began, wondering what Moon was so worried about. Based on what she had been told, Rinko knew that Kite had three different strengths and only one notable weakness, "All I need to do… is avoid fighting those who attack with electricity, right?"_

_"Although that will not be as simple as you might think," Moon's warning voice surprised Rinko enough for Rinko to fall silent immediately after, "The resistance to heat you receive for being a silver-based avatar should be significant, but unfortunately for you, there are not that many avatars who incorporate heat in their attacks, to begin with."_

_Rinko found herself agreeing to what Moon was telling her, but not only because Rinko agreed with the veteran player. Moon's words held a level of familiarity to Rinko, like Rinko had heard those words from a close friend of hers when she started playing Neo Fantasy Online all those years ago, "A strong advantage is meaningless if it is never relevant?"_

_"Indeed. And to add fuel to the fire, there are a lot of high-level players in this game who use electricity in their attacks. You will not be able to avoid fighting at least a few of them if you continue to play this game," Moon finished their explanation, and Rinko understood what Moon was trying to say. Then, almost as if Moon had read Rinko's mind, Moon spoke again._

_"To prepare yourself for the enemies who use electricity, there is a good training ground for you to practice. You will not be able to increase your durability to electricity, but you might learn a way to counter electricity-based attacks and defeat those who use them."_

* * *

'That is what Moon-san said, but… I'm not so sure anymore…'

Rinko could not help but let out the breath she did not even know she was holding. Based on what Amber Moon had told her, Rinko had obediently followed the directions given to her. Silver Kite was currently standing in front of the dungeon that Amber Moon had pointed out. The only problem left for Rinko to overcome was to take that final step.

It had been three days since Rinko received these instructions from the more experienced player. It had also been three days since Rinko managed to log in and play this game. After a humiliating defeat in a competition against Tamade Chiyu's Raise a Suilen, Yukina had challenged the producer to another round to try and get her revenge. The vocalist's selfish desire to win forced the rest of Roselia to keep up with Yukina's strict and inhumane practice schedule. It was all Rinko could do to not succumb to her exhaustion after only the second day; by the end of the third, she could barely feel her fingertips.

'If what Moon-san said was right, Kite-san will receive more damage from electricity…' Rinko thought to herself as she recalled Moon's words. Rinko trusted Moon to tell the truth, and it was with this mindset that Rinko was steeling herself to enter the abandoned power plant, 'It's not just enough to know _that_ I will take more damage from electricity… I need to know exactly _how much_ extra damage I take from electricity.'

Hoping that Silver Kite would forgive her for the torment that Rinko was about to subject her in-game avatar to, Rinko directed Kite to move its mechanical body and step past the threshold.

The shift in scenery was immediate. The desert-like, rocky wasteland Rinko had found herself in a split second ago morphed and faded away. In its place, Rinko saw concrete walls rise on either side of Silver Kite. These walls did not stop until Rinko could barely see the top anymore, after which steel beams jotted out of the concrete in a slight arc to connect the two opposing walls.

A careful eye allowed Rinko the chance to see that in between the steel beams were glass panes. These windows would probably have been a nice contrast to the concrete and metal around her, but not a single window was in one piece. Decades of being abandoned had coated what little was left of the glass windows in a thick layer of dirt and grime.

The windows were not the only things around the player that was covered by a thick layer. In Rinko's fascination with the walls and the building itself, she almost missed the various machinery that faded into existence around her. Rinko wasn't well-versed in her knowledge of electricity or power plants, but there was one thing she was sure of: she would have been much more interested in the machines if they were not covered in a thick layer of rust.

"That is enough sightseeing, Shirokane Rinko," Rinko told herself, shaking her head the moment she realized she was losing focus on her original objective. Tearing her gaze away from the walls and machines, Rinko instead scanned her surroundings. This was the place Amber Moon had told her about, which meant the thing that Rinko was looking for would not be very far away, "Just find it… and learn what I need to know… and get out… should be simple enough. Deep breaths, Rinko, you can do it. You have Silver Kite-san… here with you to help you."

Of course, what Rinko forgot to remember was that there was more than one way to initiate a fight. Rinko soon learned of her mistake when the creature she had entered this dungeon to fight appeared before her.

A wyvern crawled out from behind one of the broken generators, looking at its surroundings in an almost curious manner. All pretense of innocence disappeared the moment the creature made eye contact with Silver Kite; the wyvern's eyes narrowed before it opened its mouth and let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"All right, Kite-san…" Rinko muttered to herself under her breath, trying to psych herself up as she prepared to lunge at her target. Now that the giant reptile knew of Rinko's presence, Rinko knew that she could only rely on one mode of action: a direct fight.

And that was the moment Rinko realized she had made a second mistake within the span of two minutes.

Instead of charging at Silver Kite and striking at the metal-colored avatar with its talons, the wyvern screamed again before opening its mouth wide. This curious attack pattern caught Rinko by surprise, giving the wyvern the opening it needed to charge up its attack.

The wyvern's fangs sparked in electricity before glowing a dark-purple hue, and Rinko knew that she would not be able to react in time. The wyvern then lunged forward and aimed to drill its fangs deep in Silver Kite's right shoulder.

In response, Rinko's instincts screamed at the girl to at least attempt the dodge. But right when Rinko's fingers reached for her keyboard to move, she forced herself to stop.

'No. I should not… I am sorry, Kite-san…' Rinko scolded herself, biting her lower lip to hold back the sound that threatened to escape from her throat. Rinko used her right hand to grab her left wrist and keep herself from touching the keyboard. Only when her hands were half a meter away from her computer did Rinko allow a different thought to enter her mind, 'Now… how much will Kite-san hurt after this?'

A lot. Not as much as she had feared it would hurt, but a single attack from the wyvern shaved off nearly a third of Silver Kite's health.

"Not good! Um… Dark Sight, go!" Rinko called out the moment her right ring finger pressed down on the corresponding key. Much to Rinko's relief, Silver Kite's features faded into its surroundings, allowing Rinko to avoid being detected by the creature that has hit her once already. This momentary safety net bought Rinko the crucial seconds she needed to regain her composure and attempt to figure out a strategy.

'I cannot attack while Dark Sight is active, I cannot rely on Dark Sight all the time as it can be on cooldown when I need it the most…' Rinko thought to herself, raking her brain to think of a way out of the mess she was in. It only took her three seconds to decide on a plan of action, but even Rinko was not completely sure of how well it would go… and then the memory of her best friend's smiling face erased any doubts Rinko still had, 'Well… as Ako-chan always said: go big or go home. Watch me, Ako-chan!'

Against her better judgment, Rinko clicked on the key she used to activate the Dark Sight skill to deactivate it. Rinko knew that Silver Kite would be vulnerable to attacks from the wyvern again and, sure enough, the creature did not take long to sense Rinko's avatar.

The wyvern was already charging up its fangs for another bite-based electrical attack by the time Rinko found the skill she wanted to use.

"Kite-san… let's go! Tornado Spin!"

The moment Rinko's finger left the skill's associated key, she already knew the battle was over. Silver Kite unsheathed the two daggers in the hidden compartments of its arms, held one in both of its hands, and bend its knees. A bright cyan aura flared from Kite's shoulders, flowing down its arms and out through the blades of the daggers.

Rinko barely registered the shock and fear in the wyvern's eyes before Kite pushed off the ground and darted to the wyvern like a bullet. When Kite had closed about half the distance to the wyvern, the metal-colored avatar began to twist and spin in the air. By the time Silver Kite was about to make contact with the wyvern, Rinko could barely recognize her avatar through the cyclone of cyan energy.

And then Silver Kite took advantage of the momentum of its revolution to unleash a flurry of slashes at the poor creature. Three, six, nine hits. The damage might have been small each time, but with each revolution, the damage kept piling on.

As soon as the attack started, it was also almost finished. Silver Kite gracefully landed behind the wyvern, who collapsed only a split second later. Rinko didn't even have time to see the amount of damage she dealt to the defeated creature; the creature had already lost consciousness before Rinko and Kite had the chance to turn around.

"I can't believe… that worked…" Rinko breathed out, slumping down in her chair as she stared at the screen. Her eyes saw the victory window pop up to tell Rinko of her rewards, but her brain did not register this whatsoever. Despite beating this electricity-using enemy in what was effectively a single attack, Rinko knew that she could not relax just yet, "Even right then… there were at least two downsides to Tornado Spin…"

"You are almost correct: there are actually _three_ risks to using a skill like Tornado Spin in that situation, But good job getting out of that on your own; my presence here as a back-up in case things went poorly was just us being overly cautious in the end," a familiar voice told Rinko before Amber Moon materialized to Silver Kite's left side. After exchanging greetings with Rinko and offering the newer player a health potion, Amber Moon spoke again, "As for what you can be doing next…"

* * *

**And that will be all for today! Yeah, let's not go _too_ overboard right after coming back from a short break where I didn't write regularly. As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, I will be pushing the update schedule down to only once every three weeks; this means that the next chapter will (hopefully) go up on the 7th of November.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!**


	12. Flower's Thorns

**And on to the next chapter! ****It seems like once every three weeks is as fast as I can update this story in my current state and my current real-life schedule. So once every three weeks is what we'll just have to work with going forward****…**

**I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape, or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

It did not take long for the five members of Afterglow to grow hooked to Lilac Blaze. So much so that the game became a regular talking point for the girls during their downtime. It even replaced other commonly-discussed topics such as school, their other hobbies, and even the latest prank Moca pulled on Himari.

As the girls' interest grew, so too did the number of hours they spent online. After only a week had passed since Moca dragged them into the game, the five childhood friends hadn't gone through a single day without logging in for a few hours.

The five of them would often be found training in the wastelands, trying to power up and get stronger. The creatures that spawned in these areas were weak enough to be defeated by the five childhood friends with relative ease but still proved enough of a challenge to keep Moca and Tomoe from growing bored.

It was during one of these training sessions when disaster struck.

"Maiden-chan is in trouble!" Tsugumi's voice cried out, both in horror and worry when she realized what was going on. The keyboardist's warning shook all of her friends awake and, sure enough, they saw that Himari and her Green Maiden were surrounded by enemies, "Chaos-chan, you are the closest to her, quick!"

A soft affirmative grunt was all the response Tsugumi received before Tomoe directed Chaos to save their friend. Although Chaos was not far away, everybody knew that Chaos was not the fastest character around; that title belonged to another girl of the group. As if on cue, a black blur sprang into action and dashed after Chaos; something that did not go unnoticed by the watchful eye of Ran.

"Chaos, Lotus is coming in from the left, be careful!" Ran called out, warning the redhaired drummer of Moca rushing after her. Once again, the only response she received was a small grunt of acknowledgment, but this was enough for Ran. With Tomoe and Moca on the move, Ran directed her attention to the girl whose avatar stood by Ran's avatar, "Peace, can you give those two some cover?"

"I can't… sorry, Endymion-chan, Chaos-chan-chan is moving too fast for me to provide cover for her," Tsugumi said, her voice sounding frantic and laced with regret. To Tsugumi's credit, she managed to calm herself enough to the point where she could keep her voice steady by the time she spoke again, "And Lotus-chan, well… Lotus-chan is much too fast for me. All I can do to help right now is protect Endymion-chan while Endymion-chan covers Chaos-chan and Lotus-chan."

"Don't worry too much about it, Peace," Ran said, trying to reassure and ease Tsugumi's worries. Once she had said what she needed to say, Ran was faced with another problem: what should _she_ do? Ran knew that she had the skills to support Moca and Tomoe from a distance, but the three of them had not coordinated a strategy yet. In the worst-case scenario Ran knew that she could accidentally hit either Moca or Tomoe in her attempt to assist them… or both.

'No time to dwell on what could and could not be. Moca, Tomoe, please dodge this,' Ran thought to herself as she made up her mind. If it came down to accidentally hurting her friends, Ran would just have to apologize at a later time. Then, with a wry smile on her face, Ran could not help the next thought from popping up in her head, 'Not like I don't know how to by now.'

Shaking her head to get rid of the negative thoughts clouding her mind, Ran knew what she had to do. The vocalist of Afterglow pressed the skill to activate her newest skill: Double Impact. Immediately after the game registered Ran's action, Endymion raised both of its arms in front of itself, palms facing out. A bright, crimson-colored disk materialized in front of Endymion's hands before four orbs shot out from each disk and chased after Chaos and Lotus.

The skill's uptime only lasted for a second; the disks faded and disappeared as soon as the eight orbs had been released. Endymion lowered its arms back down immediately after and Ran let out the breath she had been holding. There was no going back from what she had just done; all Ran could do was try and mitigate the damage Endymion's attack could deal with.

"Chaos, Lotus, I have fired in your direction. Watch your backs," Ran announced. While neither Tomoe nor Moca responded to her, Ran knew that her friends had acknowledged her warning. Ran then relaxed and slumped down in her seat before turning her attention to Tsugumi, "Don't you think it is weird that a skill called Double Impact fires eight shots instead of two?"

"That is pretty funny," Tsugumi's voice did nothing to hide her amusement and mirth from Ran. Ran quickly realized that Tsugumi's mood was very infectious when the vocalist found herself smiling as well. But Ran's raised mood was short-lived as Tsugumi spoke again, "Ah, Lotus-chan and Chaos-chan, you're back. And Maiden-chan, you're all right!"

"I am… thank you, Chaos, Lotus, I drifted away from the group too much and paid the price," Himari apologized as soon as the three avatars rejoined with Peace and Endymion. Surprising her friends by not wasting too much time to dwell on her mistake, Himari instead turned to Ran and voiced her mind, "That was an incredible skill, though! You're getting better and better with it!"

"Thanks," Ran muttered, not knowing what else to say in response to Himari's sudden compliment. Despite the bassist's words, Ran was still worried about the possibility of having hurt her friends, "Lotus, Chaos, did either of you, you know… get hit by Double Impact?"

"Nah, don't worry about it. One of them got close to clipping Lotus' right-wing, but neither Lotus nor myself took any damage," Tomoe said in an attempt to reassure Ran's fears. When Ran did not voice her relief right away, Tomoe took that as a sign that she had to try again, "Look, you've been training hard, even going as far as getting Lotus to train with you when Peace, Maiden, and I cannot play anymore. You're much better now than you were last week, so stop doubting yourself."

"I should have known that you figured that out… did either of you know, Maiden, Peace?" Ran asked Himari and Tsugumi, both girls mumbling sounds of affirmative almost immediately after. Himari did not even wait until Ran had finished voicing her question to respond.

Although, now that Ran was giving it some thought, she should have expected her friends to have figured it out by now. Feeling the familiar feeling of her ears heating up for the oversight she made, Ran scrambled for a reason to escape the pressure, "I will be right back, I am going to get something to drink."

Ran did not stop to hear what her friends would say to her sudden announcement. The moment Ran finished informing her best friends of her intentions she was in the process of removing her headphones. Ran had already left her room by the time Himari suggested taking a break and calling it quits for the day.

But instead of hurrying for the kitchen, grabbing herself a glass of water, and returning to her friends as soon as possible, Ran did something else. The vocalist pulled her bedroom door shut behind her and leaned against the wooden door. She would stay like that for a few seconds before a resounding sigh prompted Ran to move again.

"Get something to drink now, return to Moca and the others, and don't keep them waiting too long. All right, Ran, let's go," Ran told herself, slapping her cheeks a couple of times to try and motivate herself. The vocalist then stretched her arms above her head, smiled contently as the stiffness in her shoulders began to subside, and made her way to the kitchen.

"Ran."

Ran froze. Not because the man's voice triggered the same amount of distress and fear in Ran's system as it once did. No, Ran was simply not expecting to run into anyone at this hour, so hearing her name being called caught her off-guard.

"Good evening, father. I did not think you would still be awake," Ran said with a small tilt of her head the moment she saw her father enter the kitchen behind her. The only child of the Mitake household had hoped that this would satiate her father's desire for a response. When Ran quickly realized that this was not the case, she tried again, "I wanted to get something to drink. Did you want me for anything, father?"

"As a matter of fact, there is. You have fallen behind on your flower arrangement studies, so I will be increasing the number of classes you have to four times a week," Ran's father announced, blissfully unaware of what was going on in his daughter's mind. He was about to turn around and retreat to his room for the night when the frown on Ran's face made him second-guess this decision, "Is something wrong, Ran?"

"Actually, father, something is indeed wrong," Ran responded in a subdued voice, avoiding her father's gaze in the process. In truth, Ran had almost forgotten she agreed to participate in those flower arrangement studies, to begin with; her school work, the music practice needed to keep Afterglow going, the falling out, and now Lilac Blaze. Ran's free time was already filled up, so if she had to take extra classes to keep up with flower arrangement then something else would have to be sacrificed.

Ran knew that she could not tell the real reason to her father; she would be grounded again if her father found out a game of all things was taking up most of Ran's free time. And this time, Ran realized as the thought of punishment crossed her mind, she might not be able to worm herself out of her punishment like she had in the past. Her relationship with her father had only recently changed for the better, she knew she could not afford to make it worse now.

"We—I mean, Afterglow have a live planned for the start of next month," Ran muttered after making up her mind as to which excuse she would use tonight. Her band performing live would not only be believable, but Ran knew that her father recognized how much the band truly meant to Ran. All that was left for Ran was to test her luck and avoid showing any signs of weakness, "And since Tsugumi needed to switch around her work shifts to cover for her sick coworker, our practice schedule has been all over the place. Can my flower arrangement classes be postponed to after the live is over when I can focus on them more?"

"When exactly is this performance scheduled for?" Ran's father did not waste any time to ask his daughter. He did, however, take his time to decide on his next set of words after Ran's answer, "Very well. We shall resume after you have performed."

Ran's brain needed a few seconds to properly process what she had just been told. She could barely believe her luck; not only did she get away with telling a lie to her father's face, but she got her way on top of that? Ran had to suppress the urge to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, knowing that doing so could raise suspicion.

Thankfully for Ran, her father either did not notice the twitch in Ran's left shoulder or chose not to comment. Instead, he turned around and walked back to the doorway but did not leave the kitchen, "And Ran?"

"Yes, father?" Ran asked her father as she looked up, trying to figure out what her father would want to say in such a situation. She was never as well-versed in reading the minds of those close to her, much unlike her best friend was, so Ran was drawing a blank.

"Do not push yourself too much. Your mother and I don't want you to get sick," Ran's father said without looking at his daughter. He then left without another word, leaving Ran alone in the kitchen with her thoughts. Had he stayed around for any longer he might have seen the corners of Ran's mouth quiver or the single drop of liquid rolling down her cheek.

* * *

It took Ran a surprising amount of time after her father's departure before she could move again. But after a lot of minutes and a significant amount of effort on the vocalist's part, she succeeded in filling her bottle with water and returning to her room.

When she entered her room she was met with an unwelcome surprise: Ran's phone was lit up with messages of her friends telling her that they had all agreed to call it quits for the day. Ran, who had wanted to power up some more in the game that evening, was left deflated knowing that there was no point to log back in if her friends were all offline.

"So much for an extended training session tonight…" Ran thought out loud, placing her bottle on her nightstand before plopping down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow in the process. As much as she wanted to play more, Ran knew that she had kept the rest of Afterglow's members waiting with the talk she had with her father.

But knowing that she would not be able to play anymore that evening and being able to calmly accept that fact were two different things. It was then when Ran's mind drifted off to Moca and the struggles she had to overcome when they had just started playing. Ran did not fully understand what Moca had to go through then, but now she did. After all, Ran had been facing her own problem in the game for quite some time now, too.

'Endymion has a strong advantage over everyone else, but only after I overcame the beginning stages… before then, I—_we_ were only going to be holding everybody back with how little damage we could in close-ranged battle,' Ran thought to herself, remembering how hard she struggled during the first two days to keep up with Tomoe and Chaos. Lilac Blaze seemed to be friendlier to the close-ranged fighters, which gave Endymion a significant hurdle to overcome right at the start of the game.

'Lilac Blaze,' the name of the game continued to swim around in Ran's mind as she eyed her computer. Of all the things that would be used to try and keep the five childhood friends together, Ran had to admit that a game was not what she had expected would do the trick. But at the same time, Ran could not help but allow a new worry to enter her head.

"We are not enjoying the game the same amount; Himari and even Tsugumi to an extent are struggling to keep up with the rest of us," Ran thought out loud, remembering how often Himari had fallen victim to attacks from mobs. It had to be double digits by now, and the group had only been playing for about two weeks.

'No need to second-guess Moca's intentions. Despite her roundabout way of doing things, Moca is still the same Moca as she has always been… and even Moca would not risk tearing us apart if she didn't believe this could keep us together,' Ran thought to herself, allowing the knowledge that Moca was just trying to help and keep the group together to ease her worries. And while the vocalist succeeded in removing most of them, one worry remained.

Forcing others to continue playing the game might result in their friendship being torn apart if it became a source of annoyance instead. Ran wanted to believe that the bond that the members of Afterglow shared could survive any test, but Ran was not delusional. She knew that her friendship with her best friends could be shattered by much simpler things.

"All I can really do is face the problem and not run away again," Ran told herself, her voice barely above a whisper. She would not let it come to that point; listening to the lecture of an angry Tomoe was not something Ran fancied doing more than once a day. And Ran also knew that Moca would never let her live it down if she were to run away _again_.

With the desire to keep her friend group from falling apart and from Tomoe to start arguing with her again, Ran made up her mind. She knew that she lacked a lot of things like the light to brighten up the room in the way Tsugumi could or a way to get to people's hearts like Moca and Himari were able to. But even so, Ran knew one thing that she had: she was nothing if not stubborn.

Ran scrambled out of bed, got on her feet, and rushed to her desk. Laying innocently on top of Ran's unfinished homework for the weekend lay her phone, and Ran wasted no time to pick up and hold the device.

And that is when she ground to a halt.

'Wait, what am I even doing?' Ran asked, her earlier confidence and motivation melting away faster than snow does in the face of the hot sun. Although Ran managed to open her contacts list already, she had already lost sight of who she wanted to contact in the first place, 'What would Moca do if she were here?'

It took Ran all of two seconds to realize what she had just thought, shaking her head to get rid of the mental image and took a deep breath to calm herself. As she regained her composure, Ran tried again, 'All right, what would Moca _not_ do if she were here?'

Almost as if the anti-Moca magnet was guiding her, Ran's eyes landed on a very specific name in her contacts list. Ran knew that it was a long shot trying to contact her, not to mention the possibility she had already gone to bed being a very real threat to Ran, but the vocalist had no other option.

Ran pressed the button to call the person, held the phone to her ear, and prayed that the other person would pick up the call. The phone rang once. The phone rang twice. With each second that passed Ran could feel her worries grow; what if the other person wouldn't pick up the phone? By the fifth ring, when Ran had almost given up all hope, she finally got through.

"Hello, it's me," Ran said the moment the person on the other end of the call picked up her phone. Already Ran was feeling the urge to turn tail, but she knew she could not afford to do that. Ran would not let herself make the same mistake multiple times if she could help it.

Gathering all the willpower Ran had left, she took a deep breath before speaking once again, "I know it is getting late, but we need to talk. Do you have a moment?"

* * *

**And that is all for today! I hope you all enjoyed today's chapter, please tell me what you thought about it in a review before you head out, and until next time! Take care!**


	13. A Heart to Heart

**There actually is not a whole lot to talk about now at the start of the chapter, especially with it being a direct continuation from the previous chapter. That said, I am not sure if I have specified this before one way or another, so I figured I might as well confirm it right now. I am not planning to write most if not all the other characters from the franchise into the story (who have not made an appearance already, obviously). I don't feel like I can properly do them any justice and writing a character _poorly_ just for the sake of having that character make an appearance… that's just not my style at all.**

**That being said, I am not ruling out the possibility of sneaking in a character or two for a scene or two. After all, as amazing as Afterglow is, they don't live in a world of only Afterglow and Rinko and *insert Amber Moon's owner here*…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape, or form, intend to pretend that I do.**

* * *

_Ran pressed the button to call the person, held the phone to her ear, and prayed that the other person would pick up the call. The phone rang once. The phone rang twice. With each second that passed Ran could feel her worries grow; what if the other person wouldn't pick up the phone? By the fifth ring, when Ran had almost given up all hope, she finally got through._

_"Hello, it's me," Ran said the moment the person on the other end of the call picked up her phone. Already Ran was feeling the urge to turn tail, but she knew she could not afford to do that. Ran would not let herself make the same mistake multiple times if she could help it._

_Gathering all the willpower Ran had left, she took a deep breath before speaking once again, "I know it is getting late, but we need to talk. Do you have a moment?"_

Ran took a deep breath after she had explained herself to the person on the other line, finding that she was much more winded than she thought she would be. As she did this, Ran barely registered the other person asking her if she was okay. A question Ran was unable to respond to right away.

"Sorry about that… and about calling you so suddenly like this," Ran muttered softly through the phone, hoping that her subdued voice would still be audible to the other person. When she did not receive an immediate response, Ran tried asking her earlier question again, "Do you have a moment, Tsugumi?"

_"Of course I do, Ran-chan! Just give me a few minutes to tell my parents I will be up for a bit."_

Waiting long enough for Ran to voice her acknowledgment and understanding, Tsugumi placed her phone to the side and hurried off. Ran waited long enough for Tsugumi's footsteps to be drowned out before letting out the breath she did not know she was holding. It was only then that Ran realized that she had a problem.

What was she supposed to even talk about with Tsugumi? Even though Ran knew she had a vague idea of what she wanted to say, she also knew that she could not trust herself to properly convey her thoughts. Ran didn't have the best track record when it came to opening up to and being honest with her friends, after all.

So instead, Ran took the opportunity to take a deep breath. It was Tsugumi she was talking to, and Ran picked the brunette for such an occasion for a reason. Well, two reasons, if Ran had to be honest to herself: she had to specifically ask Tsugumi a few things and, more importantly, Ran knew that Tsugumi would not make fun of her for doing so.

Knowing that Tsugumi could return at any moment and that the brunette would expect Ran to know what she wanted to talk about, Ran made a split-second decision. She was never particularly good at expressing herself on the spot, so why not make a quick list for herself to help her when Tsugumi came back.

It did not take Ran long to figure out the general theme of the questions she wanted to ask Tsugumi. And much to the vocalist's surprise, Ran found that it was getting increasingly easier for her to write down her thoughts than trying to come up with the thoughts at a moment's notice. Before long, Ran had managed to fill up the better part of the sheet of paper she was writing on… and Tsugumi had yet to return.

By the time Ran could hear her friend's voice through the call, the vocalist was satisfied with the amount of progress she had made.

_"Sorry for the delay, Ran-chan,"_ Tsugumi said as soon as she got back to the call. Ran could hear the soft panting and uneven breathing of her friend through the call, and she was moved by the energy Tsugumi clearly put into being there for her, _"So what did you need me for?"_

"I wanted to ask you a few things about that game Moca got us into. Specifically, what your thoughts on the game are," Ran began her explanation, knowing that she should not beat around the bush around Tsugumi. Despite this knowledge, Ran was having difficulties kicking herself into doing just that.

'Calm down, take a deep breath, and… try again, Ran,' these were the words Ran told herself in her mind. Fortunately, these words succeeded in helping Ran regain her composure enough to try again.

"It's clear that Moca and Tomoe are having the time of their lives playing Lilac Blaze. It's also obvious that the only reason Himari is still playing is that she doesn't want to be the only one of us to not be involved," Ran added that second sentence quickly after remembering how Himari was playing the game with them. Shaking these thoughts out of her head, Ran moved on to asking Tsugumi a few questions, "What about you? How do you feel about the game?"

Ran stopped talking and waited, allowing Tsugumi the time and space to come up with an answer. But Tsugumi did not respond right away, or within a few seconds and Ran was starting to grow uneasy at the silence.

By the time almost a minute had passed, Ran finally heard Tsugumi's response.

_"To tell you the truth… I don't know yet."_

"What do you mean?" Ran hesitated at first to ask the question, but she could not suppress her curiosity; she _needed_ to know. Not only because Ran wanted to know Tsugumi's feelings, but also because Ran knew that Tsugumi's feelings could be the turning point of whether they should continue playing. If more people enjoyed the game than disliked it, perhaps there was a chance to convince Himari to take a different look at it.

_"I can't keep it to myself, everyone will figure it out eventually. But please promise me that you will not tell the others about this, I want to be the one to tell them myself,"_ Tsugumi added her condition hastily before Ran had an opportunity to comment. Despite the distance between the two girls, Ran could see the fear in the brunette's eyes like she could hear it in her voice. And so, Ran did her best to reassure Tsugumi that her secret would be safe with her… and only then did Tsugumi start opening up to Ran.

_"I was never really into these kinds of video games. And because of that, I haven't looked into the game's mechanics and lore and strategies and such in the same way that Moca-chan or Tomoe-chan have,"_ Tsugumi began after a small pause to calm herself down, _"__When Moca-chan is motivated at something, she is_ really _motivated. Tomoe-chan has a 'hates to lose' attitude, so Tomoe-chan becomes super competitive with Moca-chan. __And I am sure that Ran-chan feels the same way I do: it's hard trying to keep up with Moca-chan and Tomoe-chan when they go at it at full speed._"

Ran did not respond to Tsugumi's implied question but, in a way, the silence Ran provided was an answer in and of itself. Ran knew that Tsugumi was right; Moca and Tomoe were the two girls who were the most dedicated and invested in the game by a significant margin. Which meant that Ran was left huffing and puffing trying her hardest just to keep up.

"But what about—?" Ran began, but before she could formulate a full sentence she was already interrupted.

_"It doesn't matter, Ran-chan. We all worried about the same thing: can the five of us remain as close as we have always been all these years?"_ Tsugumi asked Ran in a warm and gentle voice, but the brunette did not give Ran any time to actually answer the question, _"I don't want to lose Ran-chan. I don't want to lose Moca-chan, Himari-chan, or Tomoe-chan, either. But the way things were going we would eventually fall apart and lose each other. I never wanted that!"_

_"Ah! Sorry, Ran-chan, I didn't mean to yell in your ear,"_ Tsugumi quickly uttered her apology when she realized the volume at which she had said the previous sentence. Ran did not waste any time in reassuring the keyboardist that everything was fine, but Tsugumi needed a few moments to pick up where she had left off.

_"And then Moca-chan came to us one day and gave us a lifeline in the form of this game. Moca-chan loves it, Tomoe-chan finally has another thing she can talk about with Ako-chan, and then the rest of us…" _Tsugumi trailed off, letting her words linger in Ran's mind in the process. Ran understood exactly where Tsugumi was going with this, but she never had to be the person to bring it up; Tsugumi seemed more than happy to do that for Ran.

_"I see the game as a way for us to stay together. I don't hate it, so I try my best to keep up with everyone. Moca-chan went out of her way to find this for us, so it is only right for me to give it a fair shot. It has already proven itself in being able to keep us together this long, so I am optimistic that it was the right decision to join Moca-chan,"_ Tsugumi continued, and Ran could feel herself nod in agreement at the sentiment. But Tsugumi was not finished talking just yet, _"And to be perfectly honest… I am enjoying the game a lot more than I thought I would. So, I should thank Moca-chan tomorrow for introducing it to me. And for giving me something else to fall back and rely on to keep our friendship strong."_

"I see," Ran muttered, more to herself than to her friend as she allowed her brain the time it needed to process Tsugumi's words. Not wanting to keep Tsugumi waiting too long, Ran forced herself to talk again, "Thank you for sharing your opinion."

_"I'm happy I could help,"_ Tsugumi said, and Ran could feel the radiant smile on the brunette's face despite being unable to see it directly. Ran was then ready to end the call, but someone else had a different idea, _"But since we are already talking, what about Ran-chan?"_

"What about me?" Ran asked, wondering where Tsugumi was going with this. Ran had an idea what Tsugumi was referring to but, having known someone like Aoba Moca effectively her entire life, Ran knew that she should never just assume things.

_"What does Ran-chan think of Lilac Blaze?"_ Tsugumi specified her question this time, confirming Ran's earlier suspicion in the process. However, although Ran had seen this question coming, she still needed some time to think of her response. Time that Tsugumi interpreted to mean something else, _"Ran-chan?"_

"Sorry, give me a bit to think," Ran responded, and Tsugumi made an affirmative-sounding noise. The fact that Ran had to think about how she felt about the game was troubling; if she liked or disliked the game it would have been immediately obvious to Ran what her stance was. But the feeling that Ran was feeling was…

"Indifference. I don't feel strongly one way or another about the game," Ran admitted in a voice that was barely above a whisper. Ran took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and thought about what she had just said, "It's not the same Afterglow as always, and it's not something that most of us thought of doing until Moca brought it up."

"But for what it is worth, I also enjoy the time we spend together in that world," Ran finished, surprising herself with the unfamiliar feeling of her mouth curving up. Ran managed to correct that anomaly quickly, and as she did she realized how grateful she was that nobody saw her. And then her mood dropped the moment she spoke again, "Now all that is left is Himari."

_"That's right… only Himari-chan is left…"_ Tsugumi trailed off again, possibly thinking how to properly convince her pink-haired friend to enjoy the game as much as she did. It quickly became clear to Ran that Tsugumi was not coming to a conclusion quick enough, because Tsugumi's voice was reaching Ran's ear once again, _"Sorry, Ran-chan, but I am getting sleepy. I'll see you tomorrow at school?"_

"Don't worry about it, and sorry to keep you up so late," Ran added the second part in a bit sheepish of a voice; Ran had forgotten that Tsugumi was not one to regularly stay up late. Apparently, this was obvious even for Tsugumi as Ran could hear the brunette's muffled giggles, "Good night."

_"Good night, Ran-chan."_

Ran barely heard Tsugumi's final words before Ran lowered her phone and ended the call. She then lowered her phone into her lap and stared off into the distance.

When seconds began to change into minutes, Ran let out an annoyed groan she barely managed to muffle in her arm. Her talk with Tsugumi certainly helped in reassuring Ran that what they were doing was a step in the right direction. That what they were doing had allowed them to grow closer.

'But it is not quite enough… no, it's not just 'not quite enough'; at this rate, it might even tear us apart again,' Ran thought to herself as she thought of the issues they still needed to work on. The obvious issue of the five childhood friends not fully understanding the game yet aside, Ran could see a different, more significant problem they need to work on first, 'Himari. What can we do to get you back to the same Himari as always?'

Ran was not blind or dense, contrary to what some people might have thought. She knew and understood how her friends acted when everything was all right. If one of them started to act differently, then Ran was sure to pick up on the change.

No matter how hard Himari tried to hide it, Ran could still see the change. Tsugumi did, too, as Ran had learned moments ago, and Ran was sure that Moca and Tomoe would at least have noticed that something was wrong.

'I know that our avatars and playstyles are different, but that's not the only thing. Himari would not be this distant if that was the only thing eating away at her,' Ran told herself. And, on second thought, Ran could not really blame Himari for the way the bassist had been pulling away, bit by bit.

"I had trouble with Endymion at the start, too," Ran thought out loud, recalling the first couple of days after the group of friends started playing. Suppressing a shiver from running down her spine, Ran instead tried looking back at how far she had come with Endymion.

Endymion.

Ran had mixed feelings when she found out that Red Endymion would be who she'd be playing as. Being the only person amongst her friend group to have a significantly different style of play was something that took a while for Ran to accept. And that was even ignoring the disappointment Ran felt when she realized she could not customize her character to her heart's content.

At the same time, however, Ran felt a bond between her and her avatar that she could not quite explain. The moment she saw Red Endymion on the screen, Ran could tell that this avatar was perfect for her.

'Endymion and I are connected; just like how I am connected with Moca and the others,' Ran thought to herself as the image of her avatar appeared in her mind. Even now, Ran did not fully understand the significance of the bond she held with her avatar. As a matter of fact, Ran was sure that nobody of Afterglow knew what the bond between them and their respective avatars truly meant.

'But even so… that avatar is a part of me now,' Ran told herself with a firm, determined nod. Ran then took a few moments to decide on what she wanted to do, checked her phone to make sure it would not get too late, and turned her laptop back on, 'Playing Lilac Blaze without everyone else has no use, but that does not mean I cannot do my research. There has to be something out there somewhere that we missed on our first few searches.'

With her desire to learn more about the game and her avatar fueling her, Ran opened her laptop and resumed her search. This was not the first time Ran would try to find out more about the avatar creation process of Lilac Blaze; after being introduced to the game by Moca, Ran had already begun her quest to look for information.

The problem was that Ran's searches always came up short. The only thing that Ran managed to dig up was the process in which avatars were created… something that was not all that helpful in satiating Ran's curiosity.

And even the avatar creation process was something that Moca had already explained to them when the five friends started playing the game.

"I guess I can always ask Moca if she knows anything else," Ran decided after considering her options some more. It was a long shot to try and hope that Moca had answers for her, but as things stood right now Ran knew that it was her best chance.

Ran wanted to spend another few hours on her search, but it was at that moment when a yawn dissuaded the vocalist from doing so. Ran was surprised that she was already this exhausted, but a glance at the clock told her why: it was already well past one in the morning. It had been two hours since her call with Tsugumi had come to an end!

'All right. Get some rest and make Moca tell me everything she knows tomorrow,' Ran told herself, suppressing another yawn from escaping her mouth. It would be a fruitless effort for her if she were to continue now that her eyelids were so heavy, and Ran knew that she should call it a day. As difficult as it was for her to accept that fact.

With a last glance in the direction of her computer, Ran eventually pulled herself together and regretfully tore her gaze away and shut her laptop down.

* * *

**A bit of a shorter chapter, I know, it's been a busy few weeks for me as of late. I hope you enjoyed the chapter regardless of this fact, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time. Take care!**


End file.
